Mary Anning's 215th Birthday Marked by a Google Doodle

Fossil collector Mary Anning is the subject of the latest Google doodle on the search engine's home page.
The Google doodle shows Mary Anning hunting for fossils with the fossilised remains of the animals making up Google's letters. Anning, who started out as a fossil collector, used to dig the fossils and sell them for a living. It wasn't until later in her life, that she took to it as a science. Anning's works helped influence and shape the early days of the study of the science of palaeontology.

Amongst Mary Anning's many discoveries, the more prominent ones included, the Ichthyosaurs, the Plesiosaurs, Fossil fish and the Pterosaur. The doodle itself, pays a tribute of sorts with the second G in the word closely resembling the fossilised bone structure of a reptile from the Jurassic Age.

Born to a cabin maker in Lyme Regis, Dorset, England,Mary Anning worked on the marine fossils in the area around her hometown. Most of them were found at the Jurassic Coast in Charmouth and Blue Lias. In the year 1833, she nearly died while digging for a fossil in a landslide. She lost her dog, Tray, in the accident.

Despite her popularity in Britain, Europe and America, Mary Anning couldn't make it to the Geological Society of London on account of her gender. The fossil fish species Acrodus anningiae, and Belenostomus anningiae were named after her when she was alive. Posthumously, there have been other species and two genus named after her. She passed away on March 9, 1847 at the age of 47 after a battle with breast cancer.

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