Hello and welcome to Homeschool History. I'm Greg Jenner, the historian behind TV's

Horrible Histories, and the host of the BBC podcast, You're Dead To Me. I'm here to

deliver a snappy history lesson to entertain and educate the whole family, who says that

homeschooling can't be fun. Today we are journeying to the 19th century to meet an extraordinary

woman who was truly ahead of her time. Known as the Princess of Paleontology and the

greatest fossil hunter who ever lived, we're learning about Mary Anning. Mary Anning entered

history with a bang. In 1799, in a place called Line Regis on the southwest coast of England,

and I mean a literal bang, when she was just one year old, she was struck by lightning.

Other people sadly died, but Mary miraculously survived, which led some people in the town to

think that she had superpowers, kind of like the flash. Mary's parents were called Richard,

and also Mary, and they weren't a very posh family at all. Trajically, they had ten children,

but only young Mary and her brother Joseph survived. Richard was a respectable cabinetmaker,

as well as being quite poor, the Anning family had unusual religious beliefs for the time,

which meant that other people were quite suspicious of them. Richard Anning strongly believed that

poor people should have better rights and a good education. So when he wasn't building fancy

furniture, he was involved in protests against food shortages. He was the Marcus Rashford of Carpentry.

I don't want this to be the end of it, you know. Even though she was quite poor and was a girl,

young Mary's parents made sure that she had an education, and soon she became interested in geology

and paleontology, which is the study of rocks and fossils from tens or hundreds of millions of

years ago. This was a nice hobby to have in lime regions because fossils were absolutely everywhere.

You couldn't go for a walk on the beach without tripping over crusty remains of a prehistoric

sea snail. Careful! To make some extra cash, Mary's dad Richard started collecting fossils

...