Mary Anning was born on the southern shores of Great Britain in the year 1799. She passed away in the year 1847.

She is one of 12 children, however only her and her brother survived into adulthood. Mary grew up in poverty and was poor for most of her life.

Her father was a fossil hunter and often took her on his excavations at Lyme Regis. This is how she learned all about archaeology.

Her father passed away and left the family in great debt. So she began to hunt fossils with the help of her brother to help their financial situation.

She helped discover the first specimen of Ichthyosaurus to be known by the scientific community of London. 

She also discovered the first plesiosaur. This was extraordinary considering this was a new find for the paleontologist community because these dinosaurs were unknown.

While these finds did make her a paleontologist, her gender and poor status prevented her from being taken seriously. Mary was often not credited for finding fossils and was forgotten by historians since there was little documentation.

She became a savvy business woman and would sell goods by the shores of Lyme Regis while she was not out fossil hunting.