History of Geology Group

Portrait of Mary Anning in a green cloak, lace cap and straw bonnet tied with a red ribbon. She holds a hammer and has a basket over her arm. A small black and white dog lies at her feet and an ichthyosaur skull is shown faintly at the bottom right.

The famous portrait of #MaryAnning, probably in her 'Sunday best' rather than fieldwork clothes, was painted from life in February 1842 perhaps by William Gray (1815–85). Intended for exhibition at the Royal Academy, it seems not to have been shown and may have hung in Anning's fossil shop or home.

Victor Monnin's book, *Critical History for Tomorrow's Paleontology*, published by Cambridge University Press, has been released. The book is available as a free download until February 10th, with a print edition scheduled for release at the end of February. Here is the link doi.org/10.1017/9781...

Histoire des sciences de la Terre - ISTE Group Cet ouvrage entend à la fois rendre compte des recherches qui ont éclairé l’évolution des discours sur la Terre, de l’Antiquité au tout début du XXe siècle, et offrir aux étudiants comme à toute perso...

Une histoire des sciences de la Terre, sous la direction de Pierre Savaton

▶️ désormais disponible à l’achat sur le site de l’éditeur Iste, en version imprimée et en version numérique

▶️ sommaire et introduction = en accès libre sur le site de l’éditeur

www.istegroup.com/fr/produit/h...

#FossilFriday On February 28, 1878, several dozen Iguanodon fossils were discovered at Bernissart, Belgium. Louis Dollo devoted himself to the study of the Iguanodons. ⚒️🧪
wp.me/p3ihHu-10W #histsci #sciart #historyofpalaeontology

February 5, 1770, birthday of French naturalist & mineralogist Alexandre Brongniart. Together with Cuvier he published some of the first stratigraphic sections & geological maps in 1808, showing the geological layers of the basin of Paris
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February 5, 1808, birthday of German painter Carl Spitzweg. One of the most important artists of the Biedermeier era, he is famous for a series of paintings showing "odd characters & pass-time activities" including "the Geologist" (1854)
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Magic lantern slide depicting two views of one of the Homotherium latidens canines found by McEnery in Kents Cavern in Jan 1826. The teeth are scimitar-shaped and have distinctive serrated edges. The hand-painted label reads "Pre-historic Man. Canine Tooth of Sabre toothed Lion from Kent's Hole Mac. Enery."

Jan 1826. Rev. J. McEnery discovered 5 canine teeth of Homotherium latidens in Kents Cavern, Devon - the first evidence of this species in Britain. Later magic lantern slide depicts one tooth, based on 1826 drawings by Mary Buckland (neé Morland).
#fossilfriday #histsci #Homotherium #Pleistocene

Where is the Type Specimen? Posted on by geocurators Written by Nigel Monaghan, curator of the fossil collections in the National Museum of Ireland – Natural History from 1981, and Keeper of Natural History (2001-20…

I did a blog for the Geological Collections Group on type specimens of #fossils and how to find them, based on years of digging into old museum collections #naturalhistory @originalgcg.bsky.social @nmireland.bsky.social geocollnews.wordpress.com/2026/01/30/w...

And Charles Konig, Keeper of Geology and Mineraology at the British Museum, wrote to Mary stating that for the sum demanded.
So was this find better than the 'almost perfect specimen' (as Conybeare would have it) purchased by the Duke of B? Here is the 1823 'monst'r' for comparison.

Part book illustration. A Teleosaurus upside down in water near a shore, dead. The head of another can be seen, munching on a Geoteuthis (“Calamary”)

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Also worth reading this paper by the Steve Rowland, first to translate "On The Strata of the Earth" to English: Rowland S. 2013. The Life and Geological Writings of the 'Father of Russian Science': Mikhail Lomonosov. Earth Sciences History 32(1), 86–101. doi:10.17704/eshi.32.1.w41v482666805150

Top left, skeleton of Plesiosaurus macrocephalus, its neck twisted round towards its tail; right, portrait of William Willoughby Cole as a young man; bottom left, part of a letter from Mary Anning to Lord Cole: 'Lyme April 1 1839 My Lord I beg to return my best thanks for yr kind recommendations of my specimens'.

25 January 1807: birth of William Willoughby Cole, Viscount Cole, from 1840 the 3rd Earl of Enniskillen, keen fossil collector, long-time friend of #MaryAnning & one of her richest clients, first visiting her in 1824. His collection is now @nhm-london.bsky.social & includes her 1830 plesiosaur.

Worth noting that Cole was a student of William Buckland and became a keen geological devotee, so no wonder Mary Anning benefitted from Cole's patronage.

January 23, 1857, birthday of Croatian meteorologist and seismologist Andrija Mohorovičić.
He discovered the crust-mantle boundary - named today Mohorovicic discontinuity or short just Moho - analyzing seismic waves generated by an earthquake in 1909
www.youtube.com/watch?v=omZj...

Having passed from the Annings, first to collector Henry Henley, then to William Bullock, and finally to the British Museum who bought it at the auction of Bullock's museum on 13 May 1819, the specimen's association with the Annings was gradually lost and remained unrecognised until 1969.

Top left, portrait of Mary Anning in a green cloak. and straw bonnet; top right, the 'crocodile' (ichthyosaur) skull found by Mary Anning and her brother in 1811-12; bottom left, portrait of William Bullock, a middle-aged man with a bald head; bottom right, extract from an 1814 newspaper, 'The collection now on its way to Edinburgh is composed principally of duplicate specimens, prepared on purpose, and are equally magnificent, if not in some respects superior, to those which remain stationary in London; among other things, he is bringing the fossil head of a crocodile, lately found in Dorsetshire - it measures five feet in length - and Mr Bullock is possessed of 25 feet of the body. The late publication of Cuvier, which throws so much light upon that interesting department of natural history, must render the inspection of this invaluable relic of a former world particularly desirable 10 the amateurs of the North, where nothing of the kind has hitherto been discovered.'

20 January 1814: newspapers report that entrepreneur William Bullock was sending a natural history exhibition to Edinburgh. Amongst the specimens is 'the fossil head of a crocodile, lately found in Dorsetshire', the ichthyosaur found by #MaryAnning & her brother, on perhaps its first public display.

Portrait of Mary Anning in a green cloak and straw bonnet tied with a red ribbon, and holding a hammer. Below, an extract from a newspaper: 'Lyme Regis, Jan. 17. - 'Miss Anning has again made a discovery of a grand fossil animal. We shall perhaps be able in our next to give an account of the species and appearance of it. Geologists are now very numerous: perhaps much more than at any former period'.

News from Lyme Regis, 17 January 1831: 'Miss Anning has again made a discovery of a grand fossil animal ... Geologists are now very numerous: perhaps much more than at any former period'. Then at the height of her fame, #MaryAnning and her discoveries attracted droves of fossil collectors to Lyme.

January 17, 1912, British Captain Robert Scott's expedition arrives at the South Pole, where the team spots the tent with the Norwegian flag.
The demoralized Scott, hoping to still achieve his scientific goals, decides during his return to stop at a moraine and collect rock samples...

January 16, 1909, British-Australian explorers David, Mawson & Mackay reach the magnetic south pole as part of the Nimrod Expedition. During this expedition also the first samples of lava from the summit of Mount Erebus were collected 🌋

#FossilFriday Iguanodon tooth in the Te Papa Museum, New Zealand, donated by the Mantell family ⚒️🧪 #histsci
paleonerdish.wordpress.com/2025/02/10/m...

Portrait of Mary Anning in a green cloak and a straw bonnet tied with a red ribbon. She holds a hammer and has a basket over her arm.

Great to learn today that a new mineral has been named after #MaryAnning. Anningite-Ce (Ca0.5Ce4+0.5)(VO4) was identified, appropriately, in a coprolite from the Cretaceous Gara Samani Formation in Algeria.
www.mindat.org/min-471626.h...

"The Map of the Seismicity of the Pacific Mobile Belt and the Pacific Ocean," published in 1973 by the Ministry of Geology of the USSR.
The map shows earthquakes (1896-1968) and the main tectonic structures of the Pacific Ocean.
Noteworthy the added sections showing Wadati–Benioff zones...

January 11, 1638, birthday of Danish physician Niels Steensen or latinized Nicolas Steno. He popularized the first stratigraphical principles and recognized the true origin of fossils studying "tongue-stones" - petrified shark teeth 🦈 ...

A wonderful place! In 1825 #MaryAnning led geologists Roderick and Charlotte Murchison on an excursion to the Undercliff. It was also where John Fowles (who lived at Underhill Farm, and later was Hon Curator of Lyme Regis Museum) set a key scene in The French Lieutenant's Woman.

January 8, 1766, birthday of fossil collector Henry Hoste Henley (1766-1833).

He inherited property in Lyme Regis, leasing land to Richard Anning in 1808. Anning, a carpenter, also collected “curiosities” - fossils found in the nearby cliffs - which he then polished & sold to tourists
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Left, portrait of Mary Anning in a green cloak and straw bonnet, holding a hammer and with a basket over her arm; right top, extract from a newspaper of 8 January 1823 'BRISTOL PHILOSOPHICAL INSTITUTION By way of beginning in the formation of a Museum, a beautiful specimen of organic remains, cut from the face of a rock at Lyme, in Dorsetshire, was presented to this Institution. It is the skeleton of a wonderful fish, between the porpoise and the dolphin, having paddles or fins (it is not determined which) instead of feet. It is about five feet long, and is, perhaps, the best and most perfect specimen the kind in the kingdom'; right centre, extract from a Bristol Institution report listing the donors of 'A fine Skeleton of Ichthyosaurus Communis, from the Lias at Lyme, Dorsetshire'; right bottom, the Bristol Institution's building on Park Street.

8 January 1823: newspapers report on the first donation to Bristol Institution's new museum – a fine Ichthyosaurus communis from Lyme Regis, purchased for £50 from #MaryAnning by 9 of the Institution's members, including Henry De la Beche and William Conybeare who described Ichthyosaurus in 1821.

Top left, portrait of Henry Hoste Henley; top centre, Ammonites Henleyi, a Lias ammonite named after Henley; top right, signatures of Henley and Richard Anning on an 1808 lease on a plot of land in Lyme Regis; bottom right, 'fossil crocodile' (ichthyosaur) skull found by the Annings and purchased by Henley; bottom left, Sandringham House, Norfolk, birthplace of HH Henley, and where he kept his fossil collection.

8 January 1766: birth of fossil collector Henry Henley at Sandringham House, Norfolk. He inherited property in Lyme Regis, leased land to Richard Anning in 1808, & in 1812 bought fossils from Mrs Mary Anning, including a 'fossil crocodile' found by young #MaryAnning & her brother on Henley's land.

As you can see, the Jedbergh unconformity is in poor condition - overgrown with vegetation and should be treated with reverence and TLC. This is, more tricky than at S.P. (where the sea keeps the exposure clean) but Jedbergh deserves a plan for geoconservation management - more so than Siccar Point!

Siccar Point is iconic but not where J.H. had his 'eureka' moment, that was at Jedbergh, a year earlier, 1787, where the 'discovery' confirmed his understanding of the disposition of the schistus and strata, giving him confidence to predict where else he might find the conjunction - including S.P.

January 7, 1786, died #OTD French naturalist Jean-Étienne Guettard.
Searching for medical plants in various parts of France & other countries, he began to take notice of the relation between the distribution of plants & rocks
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