British born in 1799 Anning's family home was next to the sea where she searched for fossils. A sometimes dangerous search in which one landslide killed her dog. It was a time when nearly half of children did not survive beyond age 5, and she too experienced most of her siblings early deaths. Fossil hunting & selling was common in her community. Mary was 12 when her brother found the ichthyosaur skull, and Mary, later, the rest of the skeleton. Still in poverty as Mary grew older one of her clients held an auction of fossils he had purchased from her to assist the family. She found many important fossils, but like most women she was ignored as a professional in the male dominant science world. She eventually gained enough money to buy a house. Well known, she had buyers from Europe & America. The film's emphasis with Charlotte Murchison was largely made up; both the romantic and Charlotte was already an experienced fossil collector. Basically near zero time was spent showing the arduous task of preparing a fossil. Sadly we see little of her collections & scientific community interactions where she was well known. She died at age 48.
Review of Ammonite
