Lyme Regis in Dorset, England is a town famous for its crumbling sea cliffs, and for the early palaeontologists who studied Jurassic-era marine fossils found there. One renowned for her knowledge and skill in collecting, preparing, and reconstructing was Mary Anning. Born in 1799, Mary was a self-educated woman who joined her father in fossil-hunting expeditions as a young child. This activity continued into adulthood when she opened up a small curiosity shop to sell the fossils she found.

Her significant geological finds included the first ichthyosaur and plesiosaur skeletons to be identified. These fossils that Mary unearthed provided evidence that contributed to new interpretations of deep history at a time when the biblical interpretation of the age of the Earth was difficult to dispute.

As a woman and a working-class one at that, Anning was treated as an outsider to the scientific community and was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London, and struggled financially for most of her life.

However her friend and fellow geologist Henry De la Beche painted the watercolour Duria Antiquior, A More Ancient Dorset in 1830 based on fossils found by Mary. De la Beche had artist Georg Scharf produce lithographic prints based on the painting, which he sold to friends to raise money for Mary’s benefit.

It was the first depiction of a scene of prehistoric life to see any kind of publication and depicts various animals gleefully munching on each other. It was widely circulated in scientific circles and became the first example of what is now known as “paleoart”.

By the time of Mary’s death in 1847, paleontology was firmly established as its own scientific discipline.