Mary Dennis Pennington, CPG-04401 Now recognized as one of the top women
that influenced the field of paleontology as well as science in general, Mary Anning was never recognized as a paleontologist or scientist during her LIFETIME in the early 1800s. However, in her time she was a pio- neer and trailblazer for women. At first, she was a dedicated fossil hunter which led her to be a scientist and then eventually helped develop the field of paleontology. Before her time, the field of paleontology was not even recognized as a science!
While trying to find children’s books
related to geology, I stumbled across refer- ences to Mary Anning. Here was a story about the young life of a gifted young geosci- entist who both amazed the scientific world but at that same time was not allowed to participate professionally in science and/or the geological community at that time. She was actually 12 years old when she discov- ered her first fossil with a dedicated curiosity unmatched by other scientists. Mary went out to the sea cliffs near her home almost daily looking for bones, especially after a heavy rain or storm. Mary was poor. When she found bones or seashells on the beach, Mary would sell them to tourists for money to support her family after her father died. She also continued to look for fossils of any kind as a way to uncover secrets where she lived. The region where she lived was later identified as part of the Jurassic coast which was an area named due to the large numbers of fossils which were eventually discovered along that coast.
She made many first -time fossil discov- eries including a skeletal Ichthyosaurus, (a name which meant fish lizard). At that time, the term dinosaur had not been rec- ognized yet! Mary continued to explore, and discovered more fossils. At age 24 she found the first complete plesiosaurus skel-
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eton; bezoars (coprolites); pterosaurs; and belemnites containing dried ink.
A collector who heard of
her discoveries visited her and bought her ichthyosau- rus skeleton. Then he donat- ed it to a London museum where it was studied by geol- ogists and became famous. The scientists who examined the fossil concluded it was very old, possibly millions of years old. It was a creature which had never been seen before and after examining it the geologists named it ichthyosaurus.
Her discoveries made her
famous, with scientists from all over the world coming to visit her with questions. They talked to her about her discoveries but did not talk about Mary, the pale- ontologist. Some scientists even made fun of her, especially when she announced the presence of stones found within some skeletons were fossilized excre- ment, which she named bezoars. However, after scientists studied the stones, they agreed with her. Her name became famous, not just in England but around the world. But with all her recognized talent and knowl- edge she still couldn’t join the Geological Society of London, or attend lectures, or teach classes- all because she was a woman.
stand how much older the earth was, in fact, millions of years old rather than the commonly held belief at that time (that the age of the earth was six thousand years old)
Credited to 'Mr. Grey' in Crispin Tickell's book 'Mary Anning of Lyme Regis' (1996), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons
Because Mary’s work helped to under-
her discoveries were used to support other geologists like James Hutton who were stating that the earth was much older than commonly thought. With her major discov- eries she became famous for her knowledge of fossils before the term was used. Mary was recognized as the first paleontologist by such scientists as George Cumberland and George Cuvier in 1823-1824. Geologists at the same time credited her for helping to establish the science of paleontology. In 2010, The Royal Society of England recog- nized Mary Anning as one of the top ten British women who influenced the develop- ment of science (see Linda Skeers, Dinosaur Lady 2020 for more information).
Jul.Aug.Sep 2024 • TPG 9
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