“The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone.”
Mary was an early 19th-century British fossil collector, dealer and palaeontologist. She earned her living finding and preparing fossils, in the rich Jurassic marine strata at Lyme Regis, Dorset where she lived. She made many important finds including the first ichthyosaur skeleton to be correctly identified. Anning’s social class and gender prevented her from fully participating in the scientific community of early 19th century. Some of the men she worked with and for did give her full credit for her contributions, but some did not.
