Do you remember the old
tongue-twister, “She sells sea shells by the sea shore?” Did you know that it
was based on a real person? That person is Mary Anning, this week’s Geek of the
Week!
Anning was born in 1799 in
southern Great Britian. The cliffs along the shore where she lived contained a
wealth of fossils, which Anning’s father collected and taught her to collect. The
family sold these fossils to tourists as a means to support their rather dire
financial situation. As she grew older, Anning took over the family business of
collecting, cataloging, and selling fossils. She sold fossils to collectors,
scientist, and museums around the world, and became well-known for her
knowledge of fossils and anatomy.
Over the course of her
lifetime, Mary Anning discovered several key finds, including a full
ichthyosaur skeleton found with her brother when they were both relatively
young. She is best known, though, for being the first to discover the
plesiosaur - she found a complete skeleton in 1823. Her work contributed to
rising ideas regarding extinction and the legitimacy of the timing of the
fossil record.
In spite of the fact that
Anning and her family supplied large numbers of important fossils to the
scientific community, her contribution to paleontology was largely ignored
during her lifetime, due mostly to her gender and her social status. Only in
relatively recent times has her contribution to the modern science of
paleontolgy been recognized.
Her trail-blazing nature as
an uneducated, working class woman working to provide key knowledge in a male
dominated field, along with her enduring legacy and contributions to science
make Mary Anning a perfect candidate for our Geek of the Week!
She sells seashells on the seashore
The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure
So if she sells seashells on the seashore
Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.
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