Mary Anning Discovers the Ichthyosaurus

Mary Anning (1799-1847) was the first female paleontologist. At age 12, she discovered the ichthyosaurus. Although she never trained as a scientist, she researched and cataloged all of her fossil finds. Her discoveries helped changed our understanding of geology, paleontology, and many other fields. To create this series of illustrations and animations, I created a clay model and photographed it in various settings.