Dinosaur Lady

Mary Anning grew up in a seaside town in England. As a child, she loved hunting for interesting rocks, seashells and fossils with her father. When Mary was eleven years old, her father died and Mary used her hobby to collect trinkets to sell. In fact, the famous tongue twister "She sells seashells by the seashore" was written about her!Soon she made an important discovery. Mary noticed something strange along the shore, grabbed her hammer, and chiseled out something big--it was a skeleton of a creature no one had ever seen before. Mary had discovered an ichthyosaurus, which is Latin for "fish lizard." The word "dinosaur" didn't even exist at that time. She hired workmen to carry it to her home. A wealthy businessman bought it and placed it on display in a museum. Her "fish lizard" find shook the scientific world. Before this, nobody had realized a species could become extinct. Mary's discovery was the beginning of the field paleontology. Many of Mary's fossils have been on display in museums and were written about in books and journals, but at that time, she didn't get any credit--because she was a woman! Here's to giving her the credit she deserves!