Mary Anning, Paleontologist Superstar in a Bonnet

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

Google announced that it's Mary Anning's 215th birthday.

When I was a dinosaur- (or, more accurately, a prehistoric-reptile) -obsessed kid, I thought Mary Anning was a superstar, even if she rocked a bonnet. She and her brother discovered the first ichthyosaur (prehistoric reptile resembling a dolphin with a vertical fluke, for those non-dino-fans out there). Years later, she also discovered the first plesiosaurs (prehistoric reptiles resembling most images of the loch ness monster and some sea monsters, with a long neck, sharp teeth for grabbing fish, rudder-like paddle fins and a thick, sea-turtle-like body sans shell)! She also discovered many marine cephalopods, the first pterosaur (flying reptiles) fossils discovered outside of Germany, and more, making her one of the most noteworthy paleontologists of history, and one of the few noteworthy female paleontologists.

Do you have a favorite prehistoric marine animal, and did Mary Anning discover it or its family?

[ShyMer]

That's amazing! I imagine that was difficult when most people didn't know about dinosaurs, especially for a lady paleontologist.
This post makes me think of Ponyo <3

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[Echidna]

My favourite creature:

21031

Tylosaurs, Platecarpus, anything along those lines.
I've always been enthusiastic about prehistoric reptiles.

Never heard of Mary Anning though.

[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

I am a big fan of Pterosaurs! And yeah, Mary Anning rocks. It sucks that she's been cut out of the annals of history.

[ShyMer]

Since you mentioned pterosaurs...

21099

AC moore had some gorgeous dinosaur figurines. My friend likes to collect them, so I keep an eye out for her.

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[Triton-Mahtlinnie]

Hah, I actually have that Ornithocheirus figurine. (along with a number of other pterosaur figures) I like to collect them, but it is a bit difficult since I only like to collect scientifically accurate ones (there aren't a whole lot of those).

There's actually a Dinosaur Toy Blog that reviews different prehistoric animal figurines (for good or for ill) and it's usually pretty hilarious. http://dinotoyblog.com/

-if I may be a stickler for a moment, I just want to point out that pterosaurs aren't dinosaurs. :U -

[Joy&RaptorsUnrestrained!]

Exdraghunt, I considered mentioning that pterosaurs, plesiosaurs, ichthyosaurs, mososaurs, and even a number of land-dwelling large reptiles such as dimetrodon weren't dinosaurs but their own related families, but figured it might be off topic for this thread.

And Shymer, I actually used figures of pteranodons much like that one (albeit from Michaels) as babies when I made a pteranodon costume for Halloween. I had a stick wreath suspended around my hips, with Styrofoam ovals painted with spots as eggs and those figures as my hatchlings.