Don Brown - Rare Treasure: Mary Anning and Her Remarkable Discoveries

Rare Treasure

M ARY A NNING AND H ER R EMARKABLE D ISCOVERIES

W RITTEN AND I LLUSTRATED BY Don Brown

H OUGHTON M IFFLIN C OMPANY B OSTON

With special thanks to Hugh Torrens
for his generous advice and assistance,
and the people of the British Museum of Natural History
and Dorset County Library for their kindness and aid.

Copyright 1999 by Don Brown

All rights reserved. For information about permission
to reproduce selections from this book, write to
Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Company, 215 Park Avenue South,
New York, New York 10003.

www.houghtonmifflinbooks.com

The text of this book is set in 14-point Goudy.
The illustrations are pen and ink and watercolor on paper.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Brown, Don, 1949
Rare treasure : Mary Anning and her remarkable discoveries /
written and illustrated by Don Brown,
p. cm.
Summary: Describes the life of the English girl whose discovery of
an Ichthyosaurus fossil led to a lasting interest in other prehistoric animals.
RNF ISBN 0-395-92286-0 PAPISBN 0-618-31081-9
1. Anning Mary, 17991847Juvenile literature. 2. Women paleontologists
EnglandBiographyJuvenile literature. 3. IchthyosaurusJuvenile literature.
[1. Anning, Mary, 17991847. 2. Paleontologists. 3. WomenBiography. 4. Fossils.] I. Title.
QE707.A56B76 1999
560'.92dc21 98-32372 CIP AC

Manufactured in the United States of America
BVG 10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2

For Rita-Rita, my own Rare Treasure

IN 1799, Mary Anning was born in Lyme Regis, a small English port tucked tightly between cliffs and coast.

Mary was poor and her life was hardas hard as stone.

But she was also curious and smart and her spirit shoneit shone like a gem.

Mary's life started with a bangthe bang of thunder. Infant Mary was outdoors with her nursemaid when a sudden and terrible storm burst. The nursemaid grabbed Mary and, with two other young women, raced to the cover of a nearby elm. The sky exploded and lightning struck the tree!

Only Mary survived.

It was a miraculous escape. When Mary blossomed into a lively and intelligent child, some townspeople said the lightning had made her that way.

Mary and her older brother, Joseph, were just a few years old when they began visiting the nearby rocky beaches with their father. Richard Anning taught them how to hunt for fossils.

Fossils were strange and mysterious. Although they had been found before, scientists were just beginning to understand that they were the remains of animals or plants that no longer existed, living things that had died many, many years ago.

Usually the remains of plants and animals decompose or are eaten, but sometimes they are covered by dirt or sink in mud. Of these, a rare few lie undisturbed for millions of years. While they are buried, the soft parts, such as flesh, decay, leaving bones, shell, or flat impressions in the earth. Minerals seep into these remains and become stone. These fossils survive hidden in the ground until they are revealed by a shovel or pick, are driven to the surface by an earthquake or volcano, or are uncovered when wind or water wears away the earth.

The Annings displayed the puzzling yet delightful fossils that they found on a table near Richard's shop on Bridge Street. Wealthy tourists visiting the popular Lyme Regis shore bought them.

The family struggled to survive on the earnings of Richard's carpentry work, and the extra money they earned by selling fossils helped. Then Mary's father died and the family was thrown into bitter poverty.

Mary and Joseph still collected and sold fossils they found on the rugged ribbon of shore that separated the sea and the cliffs.

One day Joseph found a fantastic fossil skull. It was nearly the length of a man's arm and had a long snout that held many sharp teeth.

Was it a crocodile? A dragon? A monster? What did the rest of the creature look like?

A year passed before Mary discovered the answer.

In 1811, Mary found a fossilized skeleton beneath a cliff called Black Ven, where Joseph had found the skull. It looked like a porpoise and was about seven feet long.

Men helped her free the skeleton from the earth. She sold it to a rich neighbor, who showed it to scientists. They were thrilled by the rare treasure, a fossil of a reptile that had once lived in the sea. The scientists called the creature ichthyosaur, which means fish lizard. Only a few ichthyosaur fossils had ever been found and none were as nearly perfect as this one.

Almost everyone forgot that it had been found by twelve-year-old Mary Anning and her teenage brother.

Mary still collected fossils and also earned money from small jobs she did for her neighbors. One of them, Mrs. Stock, gave her a geology book. From it Mary learned about rocks and mountains and the earth. She read other books and taught herself about animals, fish, and fossils.

Years passed. When Mary was twenty years old, she and her mother and brother were still living together. They remained very poor and even sold their furniture to pay their rent.

Joseph became an upholsterer and Mary collected fossils alone. She made it her life's work.