You’ve all probably heard or stumbled over
the famous tongue twister...
Sea shells... no.
she sells she's... oh.
She sells seashells by the seashore.
She sells seashells by the seashore.
She shells...
You get it.
Those six words tell a little known story
about the early days of paleontology and one
of its most important and influential participants;
Mary Anning.
But, first, let’s start here, with “the
seashore.”
This seashore is actually a 95 mile stretch
of shoreline in Dorset County, UK, that is
impressively nicknamed The Jurassic Coast.
It’s the only place in the world that shows
a complete 185 million year slice of history
as seen in the layers of its towering cliffs.
The rocks and beaches are full of fossils
and remains not only from the Jurassic, but
also the Triassic and Cretaceous.
And it was here, in the early 19th century,
where we started to realize that not only
was there such a thing as “millions of years
ago,” but that once upon a time… there
were such things as dinosaurs.
And one of the people who helped us figure
this out is the “she” in this tongue twister.
Mary Anning was born and raised in the Dorset
area, and from an early age she collected
and sold fossils, that, yes, were kind of
like seashells.
After her father died when Mary was just 10
years old, she continued to help support her
family by finding, identifying and selling
fossils to collectors and tourists.
But in doing so, she started finding things
that changed the way we look at the history
of our planet.
Before the age of 13, Mary unearthed one of
the first ichthyosaur skeletons ever discovered.
She also found the first complete plesiosaur,
the first pterosaur found outside of Germany,
and helped first identify fossilized dino
poop which is now called coprolite.
A lot of these discoveries made people question
the world they knew.
It gave rise to the idea of extinctions; these
giant reptiles obviously existed at one time,
but now don’t.
That was a new concept.
Basically, because of what she found and how
that influenced our understanding of science,
it’s safe to say that Mary is one of history’s
best and most important fossil hunters.
But, even though Mary Anning was one the great
science minds of her time, she faced a lot
of challenges as a woman in the 19th century
who was not affluent nor formally educated.
She was embraced by many members of the science
community, including prominent professors,
lecturers, geologists, naturalists, paleontologists
and anatomists, but was still left on the
outside looking in.
Women were not allowed to attend university,
join many prominent science organizations,
hold office or vote.
So, it comes as no surprise that she was never
able to publish her findings and was not always
properly credited with her discoveries.
And without proper documentation, history
has a tendency to forget.
Which is why, today, one of the only ways
people around the world are familiar with
Mary Anning and her work is a tongue twister
that just doesn’t tell the whole story.
So maybe instead we should be teaching our
children about Mary, voted one of the 10 most
important British woman scientists of all
time, by saying this three times fast:
Anning unearths ichthyosaurs on the Dorset
coast.
Anning unearths ichthyosaurs on the Dorset
coast.
Anning unearths ichthyosaurs...
You get it.
If you're not yet over dinosaurs, you should
watch this video right here, because some
nerds made a tiny tweak to the dino family
tree, and upheaval happened.
Again, video, watch it.
Do you think there are other scientists that
need more credit?
Let us know down in the comments, make sure
you subscribe for more Seeker, and thanks
for watching.
