FOSSIL HUNTER

Before she became a trailblazing scientist, Mary Anning was a poor, young woman with no formal education.

Growing up, Anning loved exploring the beaches and cliffs of her native Dorset, a county in southwest England. Raised in the town of Lyme Regis, she was trained by her father to hunt for fossils. She became adept at removing the delicate bones of prehistoric creatures from rocks and preparing them for sale in her impoverished family’s fossil shop. At age 13, Anning made an extraordinary discovery—the first complete ichthyosaurus skeleton ever found; her older brother had earlier discovered its skull. Intelligent and fiercely determined, Anning educated herself by copying articles and drawings from scientific journals, and she learned anatomy through dissection. She achieved many remarkable breakthroughs that gradually advanced paleontological and geological knowledge: She found the first complete plesiosaur fossil; became the first British person to find a pterodactyl; and was the first person in the world to discover a squaloraja (an ancestor of the shark and ray) fossil. Anning rarely received recognition in her lifetime. Only near her death at age 47—due to breast cancer—did she finally gain fame and respect for her scientific contributions. This admiring tribute is well written and thoroughly researched. Its handsome design includes captioned, high-quality color and black-and-white paleoart, archival photos, and engravings as well as some of Anning’s sketches and excerpts from her correspondence with friends and fellow scientists. Each chapter opens with a quote, including three attributed to Anning. (This book was reviewed digitally.)

Solid, respectful scholarship tailored for mature, serious-minded young readers.