On the coast of Dorset in southern England, the cliffs around Lyme Regis crumble. Every winter storm brings down more rock — and with it, the bones of creatures that swam there about 200 million years ago.

Mary Anning grew up on those beaches. Her family was poor. Her father, a cabinet maker, sold fossils — "curiosities" — to tourists, and taught his children to find them. When he died in 1810, the family was left in debt, and fossil hunting became a way to survive.

It was dangerous work. Landslides could bury you. In 1833 a rockfall killed her dog, Tray, inches from her.

The sea dragon

Around 1811–12, Mary's brother Joseph found a strange skull in the cliffs. Mary, still a child, later found much of the rest of the skeleton. It was a creature that looked like a cross between a fish and a lizard, with enormous eyes.

It became known as Ichthyosaurus — "fish lizard". It was one of the first such skeletons to come to the attention of the scientific world, and people found it astonishing: proof that very different creatures had once lived, and then vanished.

In 1823 she found something even stranger: the first complete skeleton of a plesiosaur, with a tiny head on an absurdly long neck. Some experts at first suspected it was a fake. It wasn't.

The credit problem

Anning's knowledge was formidable. Visiting scientists sought her out and consulted her about anatomy and geology. But she was a working-class woman, and the Geological Society of London did not admit women. Her finds were sold to collectors and museums, and the men who described them in scientific papers often didn't mention her.

She noticed. A young visitor recorded her saying that the world had used her ill.

Recognition, finally

Anning died in 1847. The Geological Society, which wouldn't have her as a member, published an obituary of her — highly unusual for a non-member. Today her fossils are prized in museums, and in 2022 a statue of her was unveiled in Lyme Regis.