Primary History - Famous People - Mary Anning. Mary Anning. Work Early life and dangerous living Mary Anning was born on 21 May 1799 into a humble family of dissenters in Lyme Regis, on the Dorset coast. She and her brother Joseph were the only survivors among 10 children born to Richard Anning and his wife Mary Moore. Named after a sister who died in a house fire, Anning herself survived a lightning strike that killed three others. Legend had it the lightning turned her into a bright and observant child. Selling seashells on the seashore Anning's father Richard was a carpenter and cabinet-maker who taught his daughter how to look for and to clean fossils.
They sold the ‘curiosities’ they collected from a stall on the seafront, where they found customers among the middle classes who flocked to Lyme in the summer. Their shop was such a feature of the area that some people think that Mary Anning was the inspiration for the well-known tongue-twister 'She sells seashells on the seashore', which was written by Terry Sullivan in1908. Hardships Dorset home. Fossil evidence. The fossil record provides snapshots of the past that, when assembled, illustrate a panorama of evolutionary change over the past four billion years.
The picture may be smudged in places and may have bits missing, but fossil evidence clearly shows that life is old and has changed over time. Early fossil discoveries In the 17th century, Nicholas Steno shook the world of science, noting the similarity between shark teeth and the rocks commonly known as "tongue stones.
" This was our first understanding that fossils were a record of past life. Two centuries later, Mary Ann Mantell picked up a tooth, which her husband Gideon thought to be of a large iguana, but it turned out to be the tooth of a dinosaur, Iguanodon. Additional clues from fossils Today we may take fossils for granted, but we continue to learn from them. BBC Nature - Fossils. Fossil. Fossilization processes Silicified (replaced with silica) fossils from the Road Canyon Formation (Middle Permian of Texas). The star-shaped holes (Catellocaula vallata) in this Upper Ordovician bryozoan represent a soft-bodied organism preserved by bioimmuration in the bryozoan skeleton.[7] The process of fossilization varies according to tissue type and external conditions.
Permineralization Permineralization is a process of fossilization that occurs when an organism is buried. Casts and molds In some cases the original remains of the organism completely dissolve or are otherwise destroyed. Authigenic mineralisation This is a special form of cast and mold formation. Replacement and recrystallization Replacement occurs when the shell, bone or other tissue is replaced with another mineral.
Adpression (compression-impression) Compression fossils, such as those of fossil ferns, are the result of chemical reduction of the complex organic molecules composing the organism's tissues. Carbonization Wood. Fossils. Fossil folklore. What is a fossil? Not many plants and animals are lucky enough be turned into fossils. When an animal or plant dies its remains usually rot away to nothing. Sometimes though, when the conditions are just right and its remains can be buried quickly, it may be fossilised. There are several different ways fossils are formed. Here we go through the five steps of fossilisation to make a typical 'mould and cast' fossil.
An animal dies, its skeleton settles on the sea floor and is buried by sediment. An animal dies and its body sinks to the sea floor. The sediment surrounding the skeleton thickens and begins to turn to stone. The skeleton continues to be buried as sediment is added to the surface of the sea floor. The skeleton dissolves and a mould is formed. Now buried at depth and surrounded by stone, the skeleton is dissolved by ground water. Minerals crystallise inside the mould and a cast is formed.
Water rich in minerals enters the mould, and fills the cavity. The fossil is exposed on the Earth's surface.