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The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World (MacSci) by [Shelley Emling]

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Shelley Emling

The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World (MacSci) Kindle Edition

by Shelley Emling (Author) Format: Kindle Edition

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Part of: MacSci (24 Books)

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At a time when women were excluded from science, a young girl made a discovery that marked the birth of paleontology and continues to feed the debate about evolution to this day.

Mary Anning was only twelve years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton--of an ichthyosaur--while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct. The child of a poor family, Mary became a fossil hunter, inspiring the tongue-twister, "She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore." She attracted the attention of fossil collectors and eventually the scientific world. Once news of the fossils reached the halls of academia, it became impossible to ignore the truth. Mary's peculiar finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, laid out in his On the Origin of Species. Darwin drew on Mary's fossilized creatures as irrefutable evidence that life in the past was nothing like life in the present.

A story worthy of Dickens, The Fossil Hunter chronicles the life of this young girl, with dirt under her fingernails and not a shilling to buy dinner, who became a world-renowned paleontologist. Dickens himself said of Mary: "The carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and deserved to win it."

Here at last, Shelley Emling returns Mary Anning, of whom Stephen J. Gould remarked, is "probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology," to her deserved place in history.

Length: 269 pages	Word Wise: Enabled	Enhanced Typesetting: Enabled
Page Flip: Enabled	Audible book: Audible book Switch back and forth between reading the Kindle book and listening to the Audible book with Whispersync for Voice. Add the Audible book for a reduced price of $7.49 when you buy the Kindle book. Available	Part of: MacSci (24 Books)

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Editorial Reviews

Review

"Dinosaurs are astonishing today -- and we've had several hundred years of biology to help us absorb the shock. Imagine the shock caused by these monster creatures discovered and presented by a poor, twelve-year old girl, in the early 19th century. This is the remarkable story that Emling tells so well, evoking a world far from ours that in just a few years took a destitute pre-teen scavenging the crumbling cliffs of Lyme Regis to the pages of the leading scientific journals of her time." -- Peter Galison, author of Einstein's Clock's and Poincare's maps and Joseph Pellegrino University Professor, Harvard University

"Shelley Emling vividly brings to life the fascinating story of Mary Anning, the greatest fossil hunter of the early nineteenth century. Anning single-handedly recovered an extraordinary collection of fossils of marine and flying reptiles that helped shape the way we now see the incredibly long history of life on Earth. With this enjoyable book, Emling gives Anning her deserved place in history." --Hans Sues, Associate Director of Research and Collections, National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution

“The Fossil Hunter at long last brings to life one of the central figures in the early golden age of paleontological discovery -- a woman of great diligence, and passion, and with a keen eye for fossil bone in the rock. As a young child, I was greatly inspired by Mary Anning. As an adult, working paleontologist, I remain so, a conviction doubtless reinforced by Shelley Emling’s fascinating book.” --Michael Novacek, Provost, American Museum of Natural History

About the Author

Shelley Emling has been a journalist for twenty years. She is a foreign correspondent for Cox Newspapers, and her work has appeared in The New York Times, Fortune, USA Today, and The International Herald Tribune. She lives in London.

--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Product details

ASIN : B002SQFLZ8
Publisher : St. Martin's Press (October 13, 2009)
Publication date : October 13, 2009
Language : English
File size : 1375 KB
Text-to-Speech : Enabled
Screen Reader : Supported
Enhanced typesetting : Enabled
X-Ray : Not Enabled
Word Wise : Enabled
Print length : 269 pages
Lending : Not Enabled

Best Sellers Rank: #240,607 in Kindle Store (See Top 100 in Kindle Store)
- #22 in Paleontology (Kindle Store)
- #128 in Paleontology (Books)
- #174 in Biographies of Scientists

Customer Reviews:
97 ratings

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Top reviews from the United States

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Bob

Historical-Factual-Sad in some respects

Reviewed in the United States on January 25, 2019

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Learned a great deal more about Dinos. Amazed that such a world existed and the huge variety of animals that lived at that time. All done by dedicated people with logic and simple tools and the daring to lose their life in their pursuits. Sad that Mary was not given the true recognition that she deserved except for a few truly noble men who learned from her. Also I wonder what put an end to the era. I highly recommend this book to young and old alike. Bob

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

🐚

Couldn't wait to get it over with.

Reviewed in the United States on November 14, 2015

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I was really excited to read this book as Mary Anning is a fascinating figure and fossil hunting & geology is a topic I very much enjoy. However, as several other reviewers have mentioned, the book is not written very well. The word "probably" seems to appear at least twice (often more) on nearly every page. Other speculative words and phrases such as "would have," "might have," are so overly used that it becomes irritating to read after a certain point, and a becomes a huge distraction to the story. I just counted and on pages 162 & 163 the words "probably, perhaps, maybe or might have" occur at a combined total of at least 13 times and are being used in a speculative manner. That is 13 times on 2 pages! It makes it very difficult to get through the book.

Also, as others mentioned, it is very repetative & biased, so much so, that on more than one occassion I got confused thinking I must have gotten my pages mixed up and was re-reading a previous page.

I appreciate the enthusiasm for Mary Anning on the part of the author, but I unfortunately wouldn't recommend this book.

10 people found this helpful

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Rebecca Richard

I really enjoyed this biography of one of my favorite historical figures

Reviewed in the United States on August 23, 2018

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I really enjoyed this biography of one of my favorite historical figures. I’d read the engaging historical fiction by Tracey Chevalier about her - Mary Anning - but I wanted her whole story, in greater detail, and this excellent non-fiction telling was excellent!

3 people found this helpful

Helpful

She sells sea shells ...

Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2010

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I recently read Tracy Chevalier's newest book Remarkable Creatures, the story of Mary Anning, a woman I had never heard of but is getting the attention she so richly deserved. I enjoyed Remarkable Creatures so much I was very happy to learn of this biography of her life. For anyone who doesn't normally like nonfiction I would recommend this book, it is written in a very accessible style and the story is so astonishing it reads like fiction. Emling has written a book that I found easy to read and hard to put down.

Mary Anning was born in 1799 and lived in the Lyme Regis area of England her entire life; she learned to fossil hunt as a small child, at that time a fossil was anything dug out of the ground, most of Mary's fossils finds were ammonites. Living on the very edge of poverty and barely literate she became one of the most renowned paleontologists of her time. At the age of 11 she found the first entire fossil skeleton of an ichthyosaur; a fossil that is still on display in the Natural History Museum in London. This find was the first step in the eventual theory of evolution by Darwin, who used Mary's finds and works extensively in his Origin of the Species.

The fact that Mary found this one specimen would be pretty astonishing, but she also discovered the first complete plesiosaurus, the first pterosaur (pterodactyl), a new fossil fish (Squaloraja), along with many other smaller finds. With all this she is barely known today and was often overlooked or not credited during her lifetime - most likely because she was a woman and the scientific community at that time was male dominated. Although she had many well known friends in the geological world during her lifetime she was never accorded the accolades, respect or monetary earnings these men achieved. She died at the age of 48, from breast cancer, and is largely unknown today. Although most of us have recited the `She sells sea shells on the seashore' tongue twister how many of us knew it was written about this amazing woman? A very good read and one I would recommend to anyone wishing to learn about the first baby steps of understanding evolution.

17 people found this helpful

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S. Rogers

Dig this! (Get it?)

Reviewed in the United States on January 26, 2014

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Whether you're into paleontology or not, this is a great tale of a woman of extremely humble beginnings who started a field of science all on her own that she could never profit from, partake in, or receive just due recognition. Her world-shaking discoveries are very familiar to us all, yet you'd never know them unless you read 'The Fossil Hunter'. In the right hands this would make a terrific movie with the right production company at the helm. The focus of the book, Mary Anning, should be an inspiration and a heroine to all women everywhere, showing that dinosaurs and rock hunting aren't just for boys.

3 people found this helpful

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J. Hundertmark

Interesting Read

Reviewed in the United States on August 13, 2019

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I gave this book four stars because I loved the content, but did not enjoy the author’s writing style. There were many instances in which the author’s speculation interfered with the flow. I would have preferred that the author allow the reader to slip into the story without the “she may have thoughts” that pulled one out of the mind of the main character and back to the mind of the author. However, the book has excellent content and seems very well researched.

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E. Johnson

Great person, disappointing book

Reviewed in the United States on December 2, 2020

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I hoped this would have more information on Mary, I already had read about most of this and more on the Internet, it was a slow read with too much of the authors opinions for me. The few photos are so dark in the copy, they are very hard to see, I hope to find a better book on the subject.

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Top reviews from other countries

Grecian

A good read.

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on July 5, 2018

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Interesting book giving a good insight into life and times of Mary Anning. Am not sure as suggested France can be seen from Lyme cliff tops as around 80 miles distant. Enjoyed the read and learnt a lot.

Jin Williams

Can't wait to finish this book, really great read

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 27, 2019

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It's a lovely read, I loved learning about the brilliant woman that was Mary Anning

Marje Veale

The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution etc

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 30, 2012

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I enjoyed this book, as it knitted together all the famous names of the time in relation to Mary's life. There was a little to much supposition of her emotions, but the research and facts used outweigh this. Generally enjoyable.

2 people found this helpful

Mrs. V. E. Hunt

Fossil Hunter

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on December 15, 2012

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I found this a really readable book and full of interest about the life of Mary Anning. It is of special interest if you have visited Lyme Regis and their museum.

2 people found this helpful

HUGH FRASER

Four Stars

Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 8, 2014

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good