Mary Anning Fossil Hunter Painting of Mary Anning

Mary Anning Fossil Hunter

Painting of Mary Anning

Mary Anning • Mary Anning was a paleontologist in the 19 th century. • She found lots of dinosaur skeletons but received little recognition in her own lifetime.

Mary growing up • Mary Anning was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis, on England’s Jurassic Coast. • Mary could read and write, but she had little education in science and geology, so had to teach herself. • She soon became an expert in seeking out, extracting and identifying fossils.

Mary’s discoveries • In 1811 she uncovered the 17 -feet-long (5. 2 meter) skeleton of an ichthyosaurus (see picture) the first of its kind. • In 1823, she uncovered the complete skeleton of a plesiosaurus. • In 1828, she uncovered the first Pterosaur found outside Germany, the remains of a dimorphodon, an enormous winged creature believed to be one of the largest ever flying animals.

Do you know which is which? Ichthyosaurus Plesiosaurus Dimorphodon

There’s a new film coming out in 2020 about Mary Anning called Ammonite.

Do you remember going to Dorset?

We went to the Dinosaur Museum in Lyme Regis

Inside the museum are some of the fossils that Mary found.

We also went to the beach in Lyme Regis

You can still find fossils on the beach

Mary hunting for fossils on the beach

Things to do

Can you draw a dinosaur footprint?

You could make some dinosaurs with hand prints.

You could make some fossils with play doh.