User:Abyssal/Portal:Sauropterygians

The Sauropterygians Portal

Introduction

Read more...

Selected article

Mary Anning (1799 – 1847) was a British fossil collector, dealer, and palaeontologist who became known around the world for important finds she made in Jurassic marine fossil beds in the cliffs along the English Channel at Lyme Regis in the county of Dorset in Southwest England. Her work contributed to fundamental changes in scientific thinking about prehistoric life and the history of the Earth.

Mary Anning searched for fossils in the area's Blue Lias cliffs. Her discoveries included the first ichthyosaur skeleton correctly identified; the first two plesiosaur skeletons found; the first pterosaur skeleton located outside Germany; and important fish fossils. Her observations played a key role in the discovery that coprolites, known as bezoar stones at the time, were fossilised faeces. She also discovered that belemnite fossils contained fossilised ink sacs like those of modern cephalopods.

Anning did not fully participate in the scientific community of 19th-century Britain, who were mostly Anglican gentlemen. She struggled financially for much of her life. Her family was poor, and her father, a cabinetmaker, died when she was eleven. She became well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America. Nonetheless, as a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London and she did not always receive full credit for her scientific contributions. After her death in 1847, her unusual life story attracted increasing interest. (see more...)

More articles...

Need help?

Do you have a question about Abyssal/Portal:Sauropterygians that you can't find the answer to?

Consider asking it at the Wikipedia reference desk.

edit

Subcategories

Category Sauropterygia not found

edit

Did you know?

Artist's restoration of Mauisaurus

...that Mauisaurus was the largest plesiosaur to roam New Zealand waters and that it gets its name from the Māori god Maui?
...that unlike most plesiosaurs, Leptocleidus once lived in shallow lagoon environments and likely visited brackish and fresh water systems such as the mouths of rivers?
... that Dactylosaurus lived in the Middle Triassic period during the Anisian faunal stage of central Europe?
...that Terminonatator ponteixensis is the type and only species described for Terminonatator, a genus of elasmosaurid plesiosaur from Late Cretaceous of Saskatchewan, Canada?
...that the first Styxosaurus fossil to be discovered had about 250 stones in its stomach that it probably swallowed for ballast?