Fossil Hunting in the Footsteps of Mary Anning
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- Опубликовано: 17 сен 2024
- Mary Anning has been a hero of mine for as long as I can remember. From the books I read or museums I visited as a child, I was captivated by the story of a young, brilliant and ‘uneducated’ woman who had made remarkable fossil discoveries - discoveries that would change the world. Mary’s story further inspired me to follow my dreams of becoming a palaeontologist.
For the past five or so years I’ve been trying to get a documentary about Mary Anning off the ground, to showcase her remarkable story to the world. Alas, it’s not happened yet, but I will continue to try!
In this short video, I retrace Mary’s fossil hunting footsteps, looking at the very same Jurassic rocks where she found fossils, at Lyme Regis, Dorset, on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.
Lyme Regis is one of my absolute favourite fossil hunting destinations. As a palaeontologist who specialises in ichthyosaurs, I’ve had the immense privilege of studying practically every single ichthyosaur Mary ever collected! I’ve spent over a decade retracing Mary’s life and studying her ichthyosaurs. In fact, I’ve even researched and published upon some of her fossils, including one shown at 03:33, an Ichthyosaurus breviceps.
Finally, in 2015 Professor Judy Massare and I formally described a new species of ichthyosaur from this stretch of coastline that we named after Mary, as Ichthyosaurus anningae. Some news about this specimen here: www.bbc.co.uk/...
Enjoy this little film.
With thanks to Brandon Lennon for pointing out the ammonite in the cliff.
Please check out the Mary Anning Rocks! campaign here: www.maryanning...
The fact that both Mary Anning persevered despite the backlash she faced is truly inspiring, great video as always Dean :)
Great video as always, Dean!
Let's not forget that along with making amazing finds, Mary Anning also did significantly contribute to some of the new interpretations and analyses of behaviour and ecology of Lias animals.. For instance, 'bezoars' being the coprolites of ichthyosaurs, the depositional setting of crinoids, elucidating the mystery of ink sacs in fossil squids.. That woman truly was a _paleontologist_
Thanks, Christian! Absolutely. For somebody who has spent more than a decade studying Mary's life, I'm definitely fully aware of these amazing achievements. You would have enjoyed my talk last year, 'Mary Anning Palaeontologist Extraordinaire' - I was meant to be giving this same talk as part of a special public lecture for the Marine Reptiles Conference this year, but it was cancelled, sadly. You can read my abstract here: www.geocurator.org/images/events/2019/TradingNature/SHNH2019Abstracts.pdf
How did she ever find the literature to learn such things back then being poor? She must of really fought to study hard, not like you can just jump in a car and go to the big library in a sizeable city. 😄 kind of makes me feel intellectually lazy, we are very fortunate to have the internet these days but many take it for granted, it's like we have the Library of Alexandria in our pockets and don't really care. Ironic.
Awesome video!
Your videos are never long enough.
Dear Dr. Dean Lomax you have been an inspiration for me ever since i heard of you and your Career, i love to hear about your story of life and have watched the video of ben g thomas about you multiple times and it gives me hope that i can meet you some day as a fellow Collegue or Professor who can teach us about all the things you learned, keep up the excellent work you have done! I just wanted you to know you gave me the hope and motivation to do take this journey of paleontology upon myself even though i never was particulary good at school with maths and english learning in general, your story always gave me strength to start and continue this journey for myself even in this darkest of times.
Thank you so much for your work and efforts you shared with us, keep it up you are the best :)
Hello Ben, thank you so much for such a kind message. It means a lot knowing that my work and career can help inspire others. I'm incredibly humbled. I hope that one day we will meet as fellow colleagues. Always remember, follow your passion, work hard and never give up.
I traced those very steps when I messaged you about my confusing fossil finds. amazing scenery and amazing story. Especially as she was nearly killed after a land slide. She found the first ichthyosaur 😍
Verte-berry? Like a berry sized vertebrae? That's adorable ❤
Where exactly is this in relation to the cob? Do I need to check tide times?
Is anyone finding complete specimens these days.
Hello