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Dan Snow's History Hit

Mary Anning: Palaeontology's Forgotten Pioneer

Dan Snow's History Hit

History Hit

History

4.712.9K Ratings

🗓️ 26 May 2021

⏱️ 19 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Born in Lyme Regis in 1799, Mary Anning was a pioneering palaeontologist and fossil collector whose story continues to inspire so many scientists to this day. The Jurassic Coast on the south coast of England is one of the richest locations for fossil hunting in the UK, if not in the world. During the early 19th century Mary Anning, and her brother Joseph, made a living discovering and selling fossils to tourists and scientists alike. Although uneducated and poor Mary's knowledge and skills became much sought after by palaeontologists of the period and she made some remarkable discoveries particularly around fossilised dinosaur poo! Despite her contribution to science Mary, as a woman and Dissenter, was often not given the credit she deserved in her lifetime. In this episode, Emma Bernard Curator of Palaeobiology, Natural History Museum, joins Dan to celebrate the life and achievements of this pioneering fossil hunter.


You can also watch History Hit's new film Mary Anning: The Forgotten Fossil Hunter



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Transcript

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0:00.0

Hello everyone, welcome to Dan's nose history here.

0:03.8

I may have mentioned before that I live on the coast and I love maritime history.

0:07.4

I may have mentioned that in passing.

0:09.6

Just a few miles west of my house is the so-called Jurassic Coast.

0:14.8

It's a piece of the South Coast of England, along the English Channel, where there are

0:18.7

Jurassic Marine fossil beds that have been exposed by time, tide, seismic shift.

0:25.7

I don't know why, actually.

0:27.0

Anyway, they're there.

0:28.5

And to this day, thousands of people flock there, particularly after big storms and lots

0:32.7

of erosion, and go and find bits of icthousal, terrassal, playasal and of course, the Holy

0:39.4

Grail fossilised poo.

0:42.2

As we do that, we are in the footsteps of La Paineer fossil collector, the OG fossil

0:48.1

collector Mary Annning.

0:50.9

She lived at the beginning of the 19th century.

0:54.3

Mary Annning was a local woman with no money or education, but he went on to transform our

1:00.8

understanding of our geological past and is one of the great pioneers of paleontology.

1:05.7

On this podcast, I talk all about Mary Annning, to Emma Bernard.

1:10.2

She's the curator of fossil fish at the Natural History Museum in London.

1:16.2

Exactly the right person talked to you about Mary Annning and she gives me a brilliant

1:20.0

summary of her career and why it matters.

1:22.7

If you want to go and watch the 19th century history as well as listen to it, you can do

1:26.1

so at HistoryHit.tv.

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