22 Influential Women You Probably Didn't Learn About in School

14. Mary Anning

In the early 19th century, a time when paleontology was still a burgeoning field, Mary Anning collected fossils from the coastal cliffs and beaches of Lyme Regis in the southwest English county of Dorset. Her most famous finds include the first nearly complete plesiosaur skeleton and the first correctly identified ichthyosaur skeleton, the latter of which she came across when she was 12. Though most of the credit for her contributions went to men while she was alive, she's regarded as a pioneering figure by paleontologists today.