THE DRAGON IN THE CLIFF

Mary Anning's ``curiosities,'' gathered from the Dorset cliffs near Lyme Regis, were fossils to be sold to tourists who visited Britain's southern coast in the early 1800's. Mary learned her trade from her father; her treasures were part of the family's livelihood after his death. But not only tourists were interested in her work, which included the first discovery of an ichthyosaur skeleton when Mary was 13; while townspeople thought her peculiar and unladylike, others staked their scholarly reputations on her finds—without giving her credit. Working from ``fragmented facts'' in order to right such wrongs, Cole creates a vividly personal narration of Mary's triumphs and setbacks. The attitudes of the time, Mary's occasional despair over her choices, and the beaches she combed are all meticulously evoked. A careful preface and epilogue round out the picture. (Fiction. 9+)