The Fossil Hunter
Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman Whose Discoveries Changed the World
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The Fossil Hunter
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Narrated by:
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Rachael Beresford
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By:
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Shelley Emling
About this listen
Mary Anning was only 12 years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton - of an ichthyosaur - while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct. The child of a poor family, Mary became a fossil hunter, inspiring the tongue-twister "she sells seashells by the seashore". She attracted the attention of fossil collectors and eventually the scientific world. Once news of the fossils reached the halls of academia, it became impossible to ignore the truth. Mary's peculiar finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, laid out in his On the Origin of Species. Darwin drew on Mary's fossilized creatures as irrefutable evidence that life in the past was nothing like life in the present.
A story worthy of Dickens, The Fossil Hunter chronicles the life of this young girl, who became a world-renowned paleontologist. Dickens himself said of Mary, "The carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and deserved to win it."
Here at last, Shelley Emling returns Mary Anning - who, Stephen J. Gould remarked, is "probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology" - to her deserved place in history.
©2009 Shelley Emling (P)2020 TantorListeners also enjoyed...
What listeners say about The Fossil Hunter
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- steve
- 10-03-23
Mary Anning my Hero
The story of the life of Mary Anning was well worth listening to here. However, the narrator has a bedtime story voice so I drifted off a fair bit, I found speeding it up helped. The writing itself left a little to be desired there was a constant repetition of ‘most likely’ ‘probably’ and assumptions of what Mary ‘may’ have felt. However, in all I enjoyed learning of her struggles and wins and those she interacted with.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- colin monteith
- 22-12-21
The woman who opened the door to deep time
Fascinating and inspiring biography of a true pioneer and who opened the door to the study of deep time.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
- Anonymous User
- 03-08-22
Bit of an American view!
It was OK but not the best I have read on the topic also had some big errors in..much of Lyme Regis port traffic went to Liverpool...think Bristol would have something to say about that. Also didn't seem to understand the concept of the County keeps referring to Boroughs
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Rosalind Hackett
- 28-04-21
History or judgement?
Very interesting look at Mary's life.
Odd obsession with her looks / manner, even in a historical context.
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1 person found this helpful