Mary Anning and Dimorphodon

Mary Anning with Dimorphodon

Mary Anning was a fossil collector and fossil expert from the 1800s.  She was the daughter of a carpenter who also was an amatuer fossil collector.  She was from Lyme Regis on the coast of England.  Because of her many discoveries that coast is now called The Jurassic Coast and is a World Heritage Site.  Mary Annning found the first Pterosaur that was ever found outside of Germany.  This Pterosaur is Dimorphodon.  

Dimorphodon was a small to medium sized  Pterosaur that ate insects and small fish.  It was about 3 feet 4 inches long. . . or about a meter long.  It's wingspan was around  4 feet 7 inches or about   1.45 meters wide.   Mary Anning found the first specimin.  Later Richard Owen, a famous anatomist, found or came into possesion of 2 more specimins and there was a skull.  He named the animal Dimorphodon because it had teeth of two different lengths.  He never gave Mary Anning credit for finding the first specimin.  He also named some of her marine reptile finds and never gave her credit for those either.  He had even met her and gone fossil hunting with her in the cliffs near her home in Lyme Regis.  

Some other well known men of Science did acknowledge Mary Annings contritubtions to Geology and especially Paleontology.  They include Charles Darwin,    and William Buckland.  The latter helped her get a pension for her work in science.  

Mary was so brilliant and so knowlegeable that she was consulted by many prominent men of the day.  Unfortunately her sex and her status as a commoner in England reduced how much credit and financial reward she recieved in her lifetime.  Her marine reptile finds are on display at the British Museum in London.

Mary Anning by Benjamin Donne

This is a drawing of Mary Anning from when she was a young woman.  It is based on the above portraint done when she was middle aged.  The artists, Benjamin Donne, was only 19 at the time he painted the portrait.  His art school was near Mary's home in Lyme Regis and he knew her quite well.  Mary Anning never lived to old age.  She died of breast cancer at age 47 in the year 1847.  Of course Mary Anning never saw a live Dimorphodon.  Dimorphodon went extinct around 190 million years before Mary Anning was born.  Dimorphodon lived in the Early Jurassic Period.  .  . when Pterosaurs still had long tails.  The little flap on the end of the tail may have been used like a rudder to steer during flight.  Later Pterosaurs, from the Cretaceous Period, had short tails or pretty much no tails.  

Mairy Anning never married during her life.  She was a devout Christian and helped support her local church, even though she was never wealthy.  He discoveries helped scientists and the whole world to realize that extinction of species was a real thing.  At the time most people thought that no animal had ever gone extinct.  Mary also helped identify coprolite or fossilize feces.  

NOTE:  My drawing is done in pencil and is not inked in.  It is found in printable form by clicking on the button labeled . . . . Paleontology  . . . . . . or . . . All Printables.   Scroll down the drop down menu because the new drawings are at the bottom of the list.  Below are some older drawings of mine from earlier posts.  These are some of the Marine Reptiles that the brilliant Mary Anning found during her lifetime. . . . or at least examples of ones that are similar to what she found. 

Plesiosaurus Surfacing

(Mary found these long necked Plesionsaurs.)

Elasmosaurus mother and calf

Shonisaurus Feeding

I think the Ichthyosaurs that Mary Anning found the  specimins had a dorsal fin.  . . . Or at least some of them had a dorsal fin.   IN FACT.... I decided to draw one just now.  This is just a quick drawing done when I should have gone to bed.   But here it is.  This is an Ichthyosaur.  Mary Anning's brother Joseph found the skull of one at the beach cliffs near their home.  Then Mary went and found the rest of the skeleton.  This was the first complete skeleton ever found of an Ichthyosaur.  Mary and Joseph Anning found it when they were still kids.   The name Ichthyosaur means fish lizard.  

Ichthyosaur

(This is a new drawing so it will be at the bottom of the correct list.)

Ichthyosaurs come in many different species.  They fed on fish and invertebrates, like the Ammonites you see in the drawing.   They had large eyes and could see even when deep down in the ocean.