Mary Anning’s understanding of science and skill at fossil hunting were rare accomplishments in a woman of her era but her perseverance and hard work elevated Mary to a position of respect within the scientific community.
Childhood
Born in 1799, Mary Anning was raised in a dissenting family in Lyme Regis, England. Despite her regular working class background, it seemed clear from an early age that Mary was special. At the age of fifteen months, Mary was struck by lightening. The nurse who was carrying her died but Mary survived with only minor injuries. The lightening strike may, in fact, have been a blessing in disguise for Mary since it was said that before the incident she was rather slow developmentally but afterwards, she became bright and intelligent.
Mary’s father Richard was a carpenter by trade but he had a lucrative hobby as a collector and dealer of fossils he found in the cliffs of Lyme Regis. Mary and her brother Joseph regularly accompanied their father on his fossil hunting expeditions and, after their father’s death in 1810, they developed the fossil business as a means of supporting themselves and their mother.
The Controversy of Fossils
During Mary’s youth, the concept of deep time was still new and lacked popular understanding. For most people the Bible was still the ultimate authority on the chronology of life on Earth. The most common explanation of fossils was that they were creatures buried by the Great Flood and any other interpretation was close to blasphemy.
The Discoveries of Mary Anning
The great bulk of Mary’s work was done between 1811 and 1830and it was during the early part of this period that she and her brother Joseph put together the first ichthyosaur. Among the other creatures Mary discovered were two more ichthyosaurs, two plesiosaurs, one cephalopod, one pterodactyl and a fossil fish.
The discovery of such a wide range of creatures led to the modern understanding of the history of the cliffs of Lyme Regis. It is now known that when creatures died, their remains sank to the bottom of the ocean where the lack of oxygen meant many were preserved. Tectonic plate movement that occurred over millions of years caused the remains to be compressed and their traces survive in the layered cliffs.
As well as being a skilled collector, Mary was also lucky as, at the time she was working, the study of natural history was becoming increasingly fashionable among the upper classes. The availability of rich patrons provided Mary with a degree of financial stability and also afforded her a certain level of celebrity.
Recognition of Her Work
Despite her humble origins and, possible even more of a handicap, despite her being a woman, Mary Anning was an acknowledged expert in what was commonly seen as an exclusively male field. However, she could not completely escape the constraints of her time and the discoveries she made rarely carried her name, the credit instead going to patrons or donors. In fact, during her lifetime, only two species that Mary discovered were named after her, both of those by the Swiss scientist Louis Agassiz.
During Mary’s later years, her fame won her a small Civil List pension of £25 a year from the British governemnt and there was greater popular recognition of her work, so much so that, after her death, the President of the Geological Society of London gave Mary an unprecedented tribute in his presidential address.
Although less well known today than many of her contemporaries, Mary Anning's contribution to the study of natural history and, in particular, to the understanding of fossils cannot be underestimated.
Bibliography:
Tickell, C. 'Mary Anning: Fossil Hunter' in Huxley, Robert (ed.) The Great Naturalists (2007) Thames & Hudson
Attenborough, D. Amazing Rare Things (2007) Royal Collection Enterprises Ltd
Ward, D. DK Handbook: Fossils (2000) Dorling Kindersley Publishers Ltd
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