MARY ANNING AND THE GREAT FOSSIL DISCOVERIES

A determined young woman helped launch an age of discovery of dinosaurs.

Mary Anning’s (1799-1847) childhood was spent hunting fossils hidden in the cliffs at Lyme Regis, England, with her brother and father, cementing the direction her inquiring mind would take. Mary was persistent and successful at spotting the signs of prehistoric life preserved in rock and learned to understand what sort of creature belonged to the bones. The sale of the ichthyosaurus skeleton she discovered in 1811 to a London museum was just the beginning of Anning’s contributions to paleontological discovery. She supported herself through the sale of her finds as well as, intriguingly, Elizabeth Philpot’s drawings of prehistoric squid made with its own ink (preserved in a lady finger belemnite found by Mary). Bayarri’s bulbous-nosed cartoon figures and clear, detailed frames deliver a cheery, episodic account of Anning’s experiences and offer a sense of the coastal cliffs where she made her finds. The gatherings of men at museums and in lecture halls contrast with images of the young woman digging at the rock face of cliffs. Anning was known as a gifted and reliable fossil finder, here credited for inspiring Roderick Murchison, whose achievements as a geologist are hinted at in the text. While her finds were essential to discovery and theory, Mary was frustrated by the lack of recognition for her work—something Bayarri’s biography will correct. People throughout present White.

An appealing introduction to an important dinosaur hunter.