Mary Anning: a thread on who she was

Mary Anning was a dealer, fossil collector on Palaeontologist who is known for her discoveries of fossils along the Jurassic coast in Dorset.
Her contributions changed the scientific thinking of prehistoric life.

She discovered the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton and the first two plesiosaur skeletons among also discovering pterosaur and fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites were fossilised faeces.

She also observed that belemnites had fossilised ink sacks like cephalopods today!
In fact Henry De la Beche painted this piece largely based on her findings and donated the money to her as she often financially struggled.

At the time she was very well known and was consulted by other geologists, however due to being a woman she wasn’t allowed to join the Geological Society of London.
Mary Anning wrote "The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone."

She didn’t get full credit for her discoveries and in fact the only published work she has was from a magazine, questioning its claims. She is believed to have known more about fossils than most wealthy geologists at the Geological Society of London.

She was a devout Christian her entire life despite her family being discriminated by the church for their scientific discoveries that challenged the Christian beliefs at the time. She eventually died of breast cancer at the age of 47.

In fact the tongue twister ‘She sells seashells on the seashore
The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure
So if she sells seashells on the seashore
Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.’ Is supposedly about her!

Over the years she has gotten more recognition for her discoveries and is known as one of the most influential women in science despite being fairly unknown by the public.

As for the plot of Ammonite: there is no evidence that her relationship with Charlotte was more than a friendship but getting more people to know her name can not be a bad thing! She never married so it is entirely possible.

Please don’t forget that this isn’t JUST a lesbian romance, it’s about a scientist who got her work stolen by men and was discriminated by the field of science that she contributed so much to in her life.

Thanks for reading this thread I hope you learnt something :)