Mary Anning Finds a Remarkable Plesiosaur

On 10 December 1823, on the unstable coastal cliffs of Lyme Regis in Dorset, fossil dealer Mary Anning uncovered a nearly complete prehistoric skeleton embedded in the sedimentary rock of the Blue Lias. The marine creature possessed a small head, broad paddles, and an astonishingly long neck consisting of thirty-five vertebrae. While the genus Plesiosaurus had already been named by William Conybeare and Henry De la Beche in 1821 from fragmented remains, Anning's new find offered the scientific world its first intact view of an organism unlike any creature alive in modern oceans.

The unfamiliar anatomy of the skeleton immediately stirred controversy among European naturalists. The prominent French comparative anatomist Georges Cuvier examined drawings of the find and initially suspected it to be an elaborate composite forged from the bones of several different animals. In early 1824, the Geological Society of London convened a special meeting to assess the legitimacy of the specimen. After detailed scrutiny, the society affirmed that the fossil was genuine, leading Cuvier to acknowledge his mistake and admit that he had judged the drawings too hastily.