Top 10 Fascinating Facts about Mary Anning


 

Mary Anning was a renowned fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist whose findings contributed to changes in the scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth. Despite her exceptional contribution in the fields of geology and Palaeontology, you will not find many scientific writings with her name because of the many limitations women were subjected to during her time.

Fortunately she was not erased over time in history, and today she is known for her discoveries including the first ichthyosaur skeleton, the first two plesiosaur skeletons, and the first pterosaur skeleton found outside of Germany.

However, did you know that Anning was the inspiration behind the popular tongue twister “She sells seashells by the sea shore?” To continue learning more about this remarkable lady, here are the top 10 fascinating facts about Mary Anning;

1. Anning was named after her dead sister

Painting of Mary Anning by B. J. Donne

Painting of Mary Anning by B. J. Donne – Wikipedia

During the 19th century, the child mortality rate was high, with almost half of the children born in the UK dying before the age of five. Anning’s family was no exception, as out of ten children only two children survived to adulthood, Mary Anning and her brother Joseph who was three years older.

Richard Anning and Mary Moore, Mary Anning parents, married on 8 August 1793 in Blandford Forum and moved to Lyme. The couple had their first child, Mary, in 1794 followed by nine other children. When Mary was four years old, her clothes caught fire and she died.

On 27 December 1798 the incident was reported in the Bath Chronicle: “A child, four years of age of Mr. R. Anning, a cabinetmaker of Lyme, was left by the mother for about five minutes … in a room where there were some shavings … The girl’s clothes caught fire, and she was so dreadfully burnt as to cause her death.”

Anning was born five months later and named after her dead sister Mary.

2. A brush with death

Lightning striking - Unsplash

Lightning striking – Unsplash

On 19 August 1800, When Anning was 15 months old, she was struck by lightning, and miraculously survived the incident. According to local legend, not only did she survive, but after the incident her health improved considerably. The locals during her time also attributed her being struck by lightning as the cause of her curiosity, intelligence and lively personality.

The story goes that on this fateful date Anning was being taken care by a neighbour, Elizabeth Haskings, who was standing with two other women under an elm tree watching an equestrian show being put on by a travelling company of horsemen when lightning struck the tree.

The lighting killed all the women under the try and rendered Anning unconscious. The people who had witness the incident rushed Anning to her family home, where she was revived in a bath of hot water. A local doctor declared Anning survival as miraculous.

 According to her family and the local people, the lightning positively impacted Anning because after the incident her heath improved greatly and her outgoing personality was fostered.

3. Fossil collection was a family business

Blue Lias cliffs, Lyme Regis - Wikipedia

Blue Lias cliffs, Lyme Regis – Wikipedia

Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis in Dorset, England, where it was common for the locals to supplement their income by selling fossils, at the time called “curios”, to tourists. Her father, Richard Anning, was a cabinetmaker and carpenter who also supplemented his income by mining the coastal cliff-side fossil beds near the town, and selling his finds to tourists.

The coastal cliffs around Lyme Regis, part of a geological formation known as the Blue Lias, is one of the richest fossil locations in Great Britain. This is because the area consisted of alternating layers of limestone and shale, laid down as sediment on a shallow seabed early in the Jurassic period (about 210–195 million years ago).

When her father would go mining for the fossils, he would go with both Joseph and Mary. He taught his children how to locate and clean the fossils they found around the costal cliffs. Then they would display their findings on a table outside their home for tourists to buy.

4. Forced to mature at a young age

These fossil miming cliffs were very dangerous, especially during the rainy seasons, when the rains came they would cause landslides. However, it was also the best time to go fossil hunting, as the landslides would expose new fossils.

Anning’s father had been suffering from tuberculosis, and his health turned for the worst after he slipped and fell from a tall cliff as he was searching for fossils. The falls resulted in serious injuries, and he passed away in November 1810, Anning was only 11 years.

When his father died he left the family in debts and as a result the family had to actively search for fossils in order to pay off the debts and also earn a living. The family set up a table of curiosities near the coach stop at a local inn.

5. Anning’s success overshadows her mother’s and brother’s achievements

Drawing from an 1814 paper by Everard Home showing the Ichthyosaurus platyodon skull found by Joseph Anning in 1811 - Wikipedia

Drawing from an 1814 paper by Everard Home showing the Ichthyosaurus platyodon skull found by Joseph Anning in 1811 – Wikipedia

According to Dennis Dean, the Anning family were very active fossil collectors before and after the death of the father. Mary was able to get more recognition because she had assumed the leading role in the family fossil collection business.  

Anning first well-known discovery was in 1811, she was 12 years, when she discovered the first complete Ichthyosaur. The 10-meter-long “fish-lizard” took her several months to excavate. However, did you know that Joseph, her brother, was the one who actually discovered the 4-foot ichthyosaur skull?

Joseph was unable to actively continue making the discoveries because he spent most of his time apprenticing as an upholsterer. He directed his sister on where he found the skull, and she was able to continue from there. Joseph remained active in the fossil business until at least 1825.

Their Mother Molly mainly focused on running the family business upon the death of her husband. This is well illustrated when she wrote to the British Museum to request payment for a specimen in 1821. It is unclear if Molly did any fossil mining.

6. A helping hand

Christie's auction room in London

Christie’s auction room in London – Wikimedia Commons

Anning’s family was not financially stable, especially after the death of her father. The family’s main source of income was selling fossils, and for almost a year the family had not discovered any fossils. This resulted in the family having to sell their furniture to pay the rent.

One of Anning’s keenest customer, Lieutenant-Colonel Thomas James Birch, grew very concerned for the family when he saw their current state. In an effort to help the family, Birch proposed to auction on their behalf the fossils he had purchased from the family.

In a letter to the palaeontologist Gideon Mantell on 5 March 1820 Birch wrote,” for the benefit of the poor woman and her son and daughter at Lyme, who have in truth found almost all the fine things which have been submitted to scientific investigation … I may never again possess what I am about to part with, yet in doing it I shall have the satisfaction of knowing that the money will be well applied.”

The auction took place on 15th May 1820 and a total of £400 (the equivalent of £34,000 in 2023) was raised. It is unclear how much the family received, but it was enough to place the family on a steadier financial position.

7. Escaping a fate similar to that of her father

Landslide

Landslide – Unsplash

As discussed earlier, the fossils mining cliffs were dangerous, and Anning’s father incurred serious injuries after he slipped and fell. Anning almost experienced a similar fate in October 1833 when she narrowly escaped the flaws of death when a landslide occurred where she was collecting.

Sadly, her black-and-white terrier, Tray, did not share the same fate as it was buried during the landslide.

Anning describes the incident in a letter to her friend, Charlotte Murchison. ”Perhaps you will laugh when I say that the death of my old faithful dog has quite upset me, the cliff that fell upon him and killed him in a moment before my eyes, and close to my feet … it was but a moment between me and the same fate.”

8. Anning’s remarkable discoveries

Drawing of part of the skeletal remains of Temnodontosaurus platyodon, the first ichthyosaur found by Anning – from Everard Home's 1814 paper

Drawing of part of the skeletal remains of Temnodontosaurus platyodon, the first ichthyosaur found by Anning – from Everard Home’s 1814 paper – Wikipedia

Though out her life, Anning was able to make remarkable discoveries. In 1811, aged 12, Anning and her brother were able to discover a complete ichthyosaur skeleton. The Ichthyosaurs are large extinct marine reptiles.

On 10 December 1823, Anning unearthed the first complete Plesiosaurus, a genus of extinct, large marine sauropterygian reptile that lived during the Early Jurassic.

In 1828, she discovered a complete pterosaur, an extinct clade of flying reptiles in the order, Pterosauria. When it was displayed in the British Museum, it was known as the flying dragon.

Then in 1829 she found a complete Squaloraja fish skeleton. The Squaloraja polyspondyla is an extinct chimaeriform fish from the Lower Jurassic of Europe.

9. Anning was rumoured to have drinking problems

Gravestone of Anning and her brother Joseph in St Michael's churchyard - Wikipedia

Gravestone of Anning and her brother Joseph in St Michael’s churchyard – Wikipedia

Prior to her death, the local people had started spreading rumours that Anning had a drinking problem because of the way she acted. At this period, her fossil business suffered because of her state.

What the town forks was that Anning was diagnosed with breast cancer and was taking laudanum to manage the pain. What the townspeople were seeing as drunkenness was actually a side effect of the medication.

Unfortunately, Mary Anning passed away on   9 March 1847 from breast cancer.

10. The world took advantage of Mary Anning

Mary Anning's Window, St Michael's Church

Mary Anning’s Window, St Michael’s Church – Wikipedia

It is unfortunate that during her time, Anning was not credited for her contributions in the fields of geography and palaeontology. It is even sadder to learn that male geologists published the scientific descriptions of the specimens she found and neglected to mention her in the articles.

This made Anning resentful with her friend Anna Pinney, who accompanied Anning when she went to collect fossils, writing, ”She says the world has used her ill … these men of learning have sucked her brains, and made a great deal of publishing works, of which she furnished the contents, while she derived none of the advantages.”

It was only after her death in 1847 when Anning got the recognition that she deserved. She was made an honorary member of the Geological society of London. The society also commissioned a stained-glass window in her memory installed in her local parish church.

Anning’s friend Henry De la Beche, president of the Geological Society, broke with the society’s members-only tradition to write and read her eulogy during a meeting of the society and published in its quarterly transactions, the first such eulogy given for a woman.

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