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ROCK STARS

with Mary and two children, to shelter under a tree. Lightning
struck the tree and only Mary survived. Roberts (1834) claimed
that Mary was rather dull before this event, but became quite
bright after surviving the lightning strike.
As a young girl, Mary and her older brother, Joseph, accompa-
nied their father to search for fossils within the Jurassic strata of
the Blue Lias cliffs along the Lyme Regis coast. Richard, a cabi-
net maker by trade, polished the fossil finds and set up a table of
“curiosities” for sale to the tourists who visited Lyme Regis.
Financial necessity probably drove the family business, in addi-
tion to Mary’s and Joseph’s interest in the local fossils. They
became astute fossil gatherers under their father’s tutelage.
In yet another tragedy for the Annings, Richard Anning fell
from one of the cliffs and died from consumption and his inju-
ries in 1810, when Mary was only 11 years old. Faced with debts
and little income, the family was forced to turn to parish relief.
Mary inherited the family’s fossil business since Joseph worked
as an upholstery apprentice.
When Mary was 12 years old, Joseph found a large ichthyo-
saur skull. Because larger, unusual specimens commanded more
money from gentleman collectors and museums, Mary searched
for the remainder of the skeleton until she found it, higher in the
cliffs. At the “mature” age of 12, she supervised workers to
extract it. The ichthyosaur was the first Anning fossil to come to
the attention of the scientific community. It was sold to a local
gentleman, then to a collector, and eventually to the British
Museum. Unfortunately, some parts of the specimen and its doc-
umentation did not survive.
Mary Anning continued her relentless pursuit of fossils. She
uncovered more ichthyosaur fossils, and one of her specimens
Portrait of Mary Anning with her faithful dog, Tray, who accompanied her
on her fossil searches. Mary stands with her collecting basket and rock was published by Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Birch and illus-
hammer with the Golden Cap outcrop in the background. Natural History trated in the Royal Society transactions. Upon learning the
Museum, London: This painting was owned by her brother Joseph, and Annings were destitute to the point of selling their furniture,
was presented to the museum in 1935 by Miss Annette Anning. (Credited
to Mr. Grey in Crispin Tickell’s book Mary Anning of Lyme Regis [1996]. Birch organized a fundraiser auction in 1820 to sell the fossils he
Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.) had purchased from the Annings, giving them the proceeds.
In 1823, Mary Anning found and excavated the first complete
Mary Anning: She Sold (Fossil) fossil plesiosaur, which was then described by gentlemen geolo-
gists William Conybeare and Henry De la Beche. The premier
Sea Shells by the Seashore French paleontologist Georges Cuvier suspected it was a forgery
with the large number of vertebrae in the creature’s elongated
neck. However, Cuvier eventually acknowledged the authentic-
ity of the specimen. In 1828, Mary made yet another unusual
Renee Clary, Mississippi State University discovery, this time of a pterosaur.
Mary Anning’s fossil-collecting activities were not without
The third Mary Anning was born 21 May 1799 to Richard risk. The storms that revealed new fossils also resulted in unsta-
and Mary (Molly) Anning of Lyme Regis, England. Her sister, ble cliffs and landslides. In 1833, she luckily escaped a collaps-
the second Mary Anning, died just five months before the third ing cliff that crushed her faithful companion, Tray.
Mary was born, the result of a tragic fire accident. As the The larger fossil specimens brought greater income, but
fourth child of Richard and Molly—and one of only two of Mary continued to collect marine invertebrates to sell in the
their 10 children to survive to adulthood—Mary Anning was family fossil shop. She collected among the Blue Lias cliffs,
seemingly not destined for paleontological greatness. She was which were especially productive after a storm. Among the
poor, uneducated beyond the village school, and a woman who common fossil finds were local ammonites and belemnites.
lived during a time when geological theorizing was conducted Mary Anning and her friend Elizabeth Philpot cut the belem-
within gentlemen’s societies. nites to reveal a tiny chamber with fossilized sepia. The ink,
However, Mary Anning surpassed society’s expectations. they hypothesized, likely served the same function for escape
Three decades after her birth, a contemporary attempted to as in modern cephalopods. Mary, Elizabeth, and Henry De la
explain her intelligence through supernatural intervention. Beche reconstituted the fossil ink with water and drew pictures
When Mary was only a year old, a downpour forced her nurse, of the fossils they had collected.

62 GSA Today | May 2019