Mary Anning has been a hero of mine for as long as I can remember. From the books I read or museums I visited as a child, I was captivated by the story of a young, brilliant and ‘uneducated’ woman who had made remarkable fossil discoveries – discoveries that would change the world. Mary’s story further inspired me to follow my dreams of becoming a palaeontologist.

For the past five or so years I’ve been trying to get a documentary about Mary Anning off the ground, to showcase her remarkable story to the world. Alas, it’s not happened yet, but I will continue to try!

In this short video, I retrace Mary’s fossil hunting footsteps, looking at the very same Jurassic rocks where she found fossils, at Lyme Regis, Dorset, on the Jurassic Coast World Heritage Site.

Lyme Regis is one of my absolute favourite fossil hunting destinations. As a palaeontologist who specialises in ichthyosaurs, I’ve had the immense privilege of studying practically every single ichthyosaur Mary ever collected! I’ve spent over a decade retracing Mary’s life and studying her ichthyosaurs. In fact, I’ve even researched and published upon some of her fossils, including one shown at 03:33, an Ichthyosaurus breviceps.

Finally, in 2015 Professor Judy Massare and I formally described a new species of ichthyosaur from this stretch of coastline that we named after Mary, as Ichthyosaurus anningae. Some news about this specimen here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-en...

Enjoy this little film.

With thanks to Brandon Lennon for pointing out the ammonite in the cliff.

Please check out the Mary Anning Rocks! campaign here: https://www.maryanningrocks.co.uk/