Amazing Facts About Mary Anning – The First Female Paleontologist

#15 She Discovered Fossilized Chambers

Anning gained popularity with vertebrate fossils, especially those of marine reptiles. Moreover, she found chambers with dried ink inside belemnite fossils.

In 1826, Elizabeth Philpot, her friend, revivified the ink to illustrate ichthyosaur fossils.

Mary saw the manner in which these chambers resembled modern squid and cuttlefish ink sacs that she had earlier dissected.

This further helped her analyze the anatomy of different fossil cephalopods.

She further noticed the odd shape of the fossils called bezoar stones that were located in the abdomen of all ichthyosaur skeletons.

This led her to discover fossilized scales and fish bones, which later got renamed coprolites.