Mary Anning
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Mary Anning was an English fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist. She became known internationally for her discoveries in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at
Anning with her dog, Tray, painted before 1842; the hill Golden Cap can be seen in the background.
Blue plaque where Mary Anning was born and had her first fossil shop, now the Lyme Regis Museum
1842 sketch of Anning's house
Blue Lias cliffs, Lyme Regis
Plesiosaur
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The Plesiosauria or plesiosaurs are an order or clade of extinct Mesozoic marine reptiles, belonging to the Sauropterygia. Plesiosaurs first appeared in the latest Triassic Period, possibly in the Rha
Mary Anning
…to the sea. Her discoveries included the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton when she was twelve years old; the first two nearly complete plesiosaur skeletons; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites…
Paleo Hall at HMNS plesiosaur
Peloneustes philarchus Tubingen
First published plesiosaur skeleton, 1719 (specimen NHMUK PV R.1330)
As this illustration shows, Conybeare by 1824 had gained a basically correct understanding of plesiosaur anatomy.