The Natural History Museum & Mary Anning

The Natural History Museum - London

The Natural History Museum - FACTS

1. The museum is in London
2. The museum is home to life and earth specimens.
3. The museum has over 80 million items across 5 collections: Botany, Entomology, Mineralogy, Palaeontology and Zoology
4. The museum was founded in 1754.
5. The museum moved to its present building in 1881.

The Natural History Museum 

The museum houses one of the world’s most famous and important dinosaur collections.

This video has a virtual tour of the dinosaur collection!

What are fossils?

Fossils are the remains or traces of plants and animals that lived long ago. Fossils give scientists clues about the past. 

For this reason, fossils are important to palaeontology or the study of prehistoric life.

How are fossils made?

Most fossils are found in earth that once lay underwater. They usually formed from the hard parts of living things - such as shells or bones.

After a living thing died, it sank to the bottom of the sea. 

Layers of earth and the remains of other living things built up on top of it. 

How are fossils made?

Over time, these layers turned into rock.

Eventually, part or all of the living thing’s hard parts also turned into rock. The fossil is the shape of these hard parts in the rock.

Other types of fossils

Other fossils are imprints on soft material that later hardened into rock. 

For example, scientists have found dinosaur footprints in rock that formed from mud.

Other types of fossils

Another kind of fossil can form after a small insect or a piece of a plant gets trapped in resin. (Resin is a sticky substance made by pine and fir trees.) 

When the resin hardens into a rocklike material called amber, the object inside is preserved.

Fossil hunting

 Fossil hunting can be a full time job, and many fossil hunters are qualified palaeontologists.

When searching for fossils, they must consider how to retrieve the fossil form the ground with minimal damage, and it can take months, even years to fully retrieve a fossil from the ground.

Famous fossil hunters

One of the most famous names in the field of palaeontology, is a female called Mary Anning.

Mary was born in Dorset in 1799.

Mary’s family were poor, so they made money by selling curiosities from the beaches to tourists.

Many people believe that Mary’s funds are some of the most remarkable scientific discoveries of all time.

Mary Anning’s curiosities

When Mary was a child, she would spend hours on the beaches of Dorset with her father, hunting for fossils in the rocks.

They collected these fossils, but did not know what they were and called them ‘curiosities’.

They sold these curiosities to tourists for a penny each.

Mary befriended a fellow fossil hunter, Elizabeth Philpot, who taught her more about her collection of curiosities

Mary’s Ichthyosaur

When Mary was 12, she and her brother discovered a mysterious creature poking out from a rock. 

With the help of some local quarry workers, they took the rock home where Mary began to slowly chip away at it using a hammer and a chisel.

It is now known as an Ichthyosaur, a type of extinct marine reptile dating back around 195 million years.

Mary’s Legacy

Mary went on to make many more remarkable discoveries along the Jurassic Coast, and these were put on display at the Natural History Museum in London.

Because Mary was a poor and uneducated woman, she was not given any credit for her discoveries at the time.

How old was Mary when she and her brother found an Ichthyosaur?

1. 10 years old
2. 12 years old
3. 15 years old
4. 16 years old

What does the word extinct mean?

1. Old
2. From the sea
3. Fossil
4. No longer alive

Who did Mary and her family sell their curiosities to?

1. Friends
2. Family
3. Tourists
4. Shopkeepers

Who told Mary that her curiosities were actually called fossils?

1. Elizabeth Philpot, a fellow fossil hunter
2. Her father
3. An important man of science
4. Tourists

Writing Activity

Complete each sentence…

Mary would spend hours on the beach with her father…

Her Ichthyosaur and other fossils are…

Mary became friends with…

Mary was born in…

Dorset in 1799.

on display at the natural history museum in London.

hunting for fossils.

a fossil collector called Elizabeth Philpot.

Writing Activity

Put these statements in the correct order to form a paragraph...

Mary would spend hours on the beach with her father hunting for fossils in the rocks

Mary became friends with the fossil collector Elizabeth Philpot

Mary and her brother discovered a mysterious creature poking out from a rock

Mary went on to make many more remarkable discoveries.

What have we learn about Mary Anning?

Final Task

Mary was a poor woman, who did not go to school, so she was not talked about or recognised for her findings until later on, after her death. 

Write a Newspaper article about Mary Anning's discovery of the Ichthyosaur.

You are a reporter for the Dorset News Channel and want to let everyone know about this local discovery, and the person who has found it.

What do we need to write a Newspaper?

Here is a template to help you plan your newspaper article...

Here is a newspaper layout template for you to use...

Final Task

Mary was a poor woman, who did not go to school, so she was not talked about or recognised for her findings until later on, after her death. 

Write a Newspaper article about Mary Anning's discovery of the Ichthyosaur.

You are a reporter for the Dorset News Channel and want to let everyone know about this local discovery, and the person who has found it.