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The Fossil Hunter: How Mary Anning unearthed the truth about the dinosaurs

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Have you ever found something mysterious? Something you had no idea what it was but you had this feeling it was important, that it held a secret? Wonderfully atmospheric illustrations [that] reveal a picture of the prehistoric characters that roamed the earth" - Juno Magazine At a time when women were excluded from science, a young girl made a discovery that marked the birth of paleontology and continues to feed the debate about evolution to this day.

Many will be familiar with the name Mary Anning, but are you truly familiar with who she was and what she did? She was a young lady who was born in 1799 – for children reading this that means she was born two hundred and twenty-four years ago. As a young girl she used to go to the beach near to her home with brother and collect fossils to sell to wealthy tourists. The tourists may have thought these fossils were pretty, but Mary knew they were special, she had never seen anything like them around her in the creatures that lived in the sea. Nor had she seen anything like them in the books she read, and this is where her story starts. Her imagination was of utmost importance in her ability to understand and make educated guesses about how things came to be. As an artist I love that creativity and ability to imagine a story behind an object. Mary is a great example of bringing stories to life and so for me she is the perfect heroine of a picture book. Monstrous marine reptiles and dinosaurs had once reigned the land and seas here millions of years ago, disappearing only to leave mysterious traces for humans to puzzle over. Mary's fossils paved the way for modern palaeontology and helped to piece together a picture of how the dinosaurs lived and evolved. The Fossil Hunter, published by Puffin Books, explores the achievements of Mary Anning, a fossil collector who gained global renown for her discoveries on the south coast of England in the 19th century.A children’s book telling the story of an often forgotten forerunner in the field of palaeontology has been written and illustrated by Kate Winter, lecturer on the BA (Hons) Illustrationcourse at Anglia Ruskin University (ARU). I hope The Fossil Hunter connects with the imagination of the children who read it. It would be lovely if it also inspires young palaeontologists and creatives to delve into magical worlds of their own and sparks an interest in the incredible history of our planet.”

I felt drawn to Mary Anning’s story for a few reasons. She had an unwavering commitment to discovering the truth about dinosaurs and fossils and how they fit with the history of our planet. Ongoing Covid restrictions, reduced air and freight capacity, high volumes and winter weather conditions are all impacting transportation and local delivery across the globe.Mary's fossils paved the way for modern palaeontology and helped to piece together a picture of how the dinosaurs lived and evolved. Little did she know that 200 years later we would still be talking about her amazing discoveries and how she influenced our understanding of the history of the earth. Context can be absent from many books. Many of us appreciate how Mary Anning was absent from history because she was an 11-year old girl when she discovered the first ichthyosaur . However, she was also poor. Kate Winter explains this significance, that a poor, ‘working class’ family, had no status or influence in nineteenth century. There were neither democratic rights nor representation.

Mary Anning was only twelve years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton--of an ichthyosaur--while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct. The child of a poor family, Mary became a fossil hunter, inspiring the tongue-twister, "She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore." She attracted the attention of fossil collectors and eventually the scientific world. Once news of the fossils reached the halls of academia, it became impossible to ignore the truth. Mary's peculiar finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, laid out in his On the Origin of Species. Darwin drew on Mary's fossilized creatures as irrefutable evidence that life in the past was nothing like life in the present. The historic relics unearthed by Anning on the beaches of Dorset made her a pioneer of palaeontology, with many of her finds still contributing to scientific understanding of dinosaur evolution. We are experiencing delays with deliveries to many countries, but in most cases local services have now resumed. For more details, please consult the latest information provided by Royal Mail's International Incident Bulletin. The Fossil Hunter will not be the last Puffin Books title written and illustrated by Kate Winter, who has another project with the publisher set to be released next year. This book will focus on cave paintings and humanity’s innate creativity in storytelling. Unearth the mysteries of ancient fossils and discover the life and legacy of Mary Anning in this beautifully illustrated, fact-filled book for curious young readers.Alongside Mary Anning’s biography, we’ve a chart of the Earth’s ages, through paleontological discoveries and scientific knowledge. What’s more there’s a social story here too that enables us to more fully appreciate the astonishing discoveries of Mary Anning. Wonderfully atmospheric illustrations [that] reveal a picture of the prehistoric characters that roamed the earth - Juno Magazine Therefore, when Mary Anning’s hard work, chipping out ‘curios’ from the Lyme Regis cliffs, revealed rather more, other, significant, male presenters took the credit and often the proceeds. Although Mary’s efforts were to help her poor family, she was also fascinated and curious. She took notes, compared and observed, read, wondered and made significant discoveries….

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