Who was Mary Anning?
Mary Anning was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis, a seaside town on the south coast of England known as the Jurassic Coast.
Mary’s family did not have much money, which meant she didn’t get to attend school much. Instead, she mainly taught herself to read and write.
Her dad was an amateur fossil hunter and by the time she was five or six, Mary was interested in fossil hunting too.
Today, she is remembered as one of the greatest fossil hunters ever.
Watch: Shape of Poo
Dinosaur fossils weren’t just created by their bones, you can also find fossilised dino-plops, something Mary Anning was quite the expert in…
MAN: All right there. Are you the lady that sells the rocks?
MARY ANNING: Sort of.
MAN: Oh. Where's that music coming from?
Wow. What is going on?
MARY ANNING SINGS: My name's Mary Anning, and I love finding fossils all along the Jurassic Coast.
Started pretty young.
Found my first ichthyosaur when I was just 12 years old.
Grew up in Lyme Regis without much education.
My life was pretty hard.
Me and my siblings sold fossils to the tourists, but the money didn't go very far.
Then my friend William Buckland asked …
WILLIAM BUCKLAND: What are these strange rocks I found in the ground? Come on now, what have I found?
MARY ANNING SINGS: Oh, I knew just what he had found.
MARY ANNING SINGS: It's a rock in the shape of poo.
A prehistoric number two. Found some inside the dino too.
In their fossilised bodies.
They had part digested food in their bowels just like me and you.
You can tell what they ate through poo in their fossilised bodies.
CUSTOMERS SING: A poo, a poo, a poo, a poo-ah!
MARY ANNING SINGS: There's a lot here to study.
CUSTOMERS SING: Poo-ah, poo-ah, poo-ah, poo-ah!
MARY ANNING SINGS: It's so much more than a hobby.
Finding fossils was a risky job. Beneath the crumbling cliffs of lime.
Between the tides, watching out for landslides and the treasures they left behind.
Never had true recognition because I'm a woman. But now everyone can see.
My findings are now shown in museums like the Natural History.
I'm in love with fossilised poo. Fossil hunting is what I love to do, and it teaches us history too through these fossilised bodies.
Pterosaurs, plesiosaurs too. Thanks to me now they're in plain view.
There are so many hidden clues in their fossilised bodies.
CUSTOMERS SING: A clue, a clue, a clue, a clue-ah!
MARY ANNING SINGS: I'm an expert in all these.
CUSTOMERS SING: A poo, a poo, a poo, a poo-ah!
MARY ANNING SINGS: In my shop you can come see. Spend my life doing. This is true. I'm in love with fossilised poo.
MARY ANNING: Oh, wait, this one's just a normal poo.
What fossils did Mary Anning find?
Mary found most of her many fossils on the cliffs and beaches of Lyme Regis.
Between 1811 and 1813, Mary unearthed a five-metre-long skeleton. It was recognised as a marine reptile and named Ichthyosaurus.
In 1823, she discovered the fossil of a Plesiosaurus.
Her findings showed that strange creatures lived millions of years ago.
As a woman, male scientists often ignored her work and she generally wasn’t invited to scientific gatherings.
Today, she is remembered as one of the most important fossil hunters.
Why are fossils important?
Fossils can help people to understand what life on Earth was like in the past
Scientists use fossils to:
identify plants and animals that once lived on Earth but are now extinct
see how organisms have evolved over time.
study climate change, for example fossils of tropical plants found in cold places suggest that these places used to be warmer
show how land, seas, and environments have moved and changed over millions of years
To sum it up, fossils show us what organisms lived, how they adapted to their environments, and how our planet has changed over time.
Horrible Science fact
Fossils aren’t just poo — they can be footprints, leaf imprints, or bones.
The largest fossil ever discovered belongs to the Argentinosaurus. It is estimated to have been up to 35 metres long and weighed around 70,000 kilograms (that’s the same weight as about 10 African elephants).
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