Thank you to everyone who joined our live Mary Anning Video Science Workshop! Whether you were with us live or are catching up now, this post brings together the recordings, key facts, vocabulary, and some fun activities to keep the curiosity going at home.

Watch the Recordings

Session recording for 5 – 7 year olds

Session recording for ages 8 – 14 year olds

Who Was Mary Anning?

Mary Anning was born in 1799 in Lyme Regis, on the south coast of England – part of what we now call the Jurassic Coast. As a baby, she survived a remarkable lightning strike that, according to those who knew her, transformed her from a quiet, sickly infant into a curious, energetic child.

She could only attend school on Sundays, but she taught herself to read and write, and spent the rest of her week walking the beaches with her father, searching for “curiosities” – what we now call fossils. When her father died, Mary was just 12 years old. She continued fossil hunting to support her family, and that same year made an extraordinary discovery: the skull of a creature never seen before, an ichthyosaur (“fish lizard”). She later excavated the rest of its 4-metre-long skeleton.

Over her lifetime, Mary Anning found hundreds, possibly thousands, of fossils, including some of the most important marine reptile discoveries in history. Despite this, she received almost no recognition during her life – her finds were studied and written about by other scientists, often without her name being mentioned at all. She died at the age of 47. It was only after her death that her enormous contribution to science began to be properly understood and celebrated. Today, many of her fossils are on display at the Natural History Museum in London.

What We Learned

• Fossils form over millions of years. An animal dies, sinks to the sea floor, and is gradually buried under layers of sediment. Over time, its remains turn to stone.
• Not all fossils are bones. Footprints, burrows, imprints of leaves, and even fossilised poo (coprolites!) can tell us a huge amount about ancient life.
• Layers of rock tell a story. This is called stratigraphy – the deeper the layer, the older the fossil inside it, though the Earth’s movements can jumble things up over time.
• Archaeology and palaeontology are close cousins. Both involve digging, recording, and carefully reading the layers of the past – but archaeology focuses on human history, while palaeontology looks at ancient life.
• Some fossils tell us about the world an animal lived in, not just the animal itself – coprolites, for example, can reveal exactly what an ancient creature ate.
• Living fossils still exist today. Animals like the horseshoe crab look almost identical to ancestors that lived over 150 million years ago.

Big Questions for Home Discussion

Mary Anning’s story raises some wonderful questions to talk through as a family:

• What makes someone a scientist?
• Would Mary Anning have made the same discoveries if she had lived today?
• Can evidence change what people believe? Why or why not?
• If Mary Anning lived today, would her journey be easier, or would different barriers still exist?
• What do you think is more powerful in science: knowing the answer, or asking the question?

Words Like a Palaeontologist: Vocabulary from the Session

Paleobiology Imagine finding a dinosaur bone or a leaf that turned to stone. Paleobiology is the science of studying these clues to discover what life on Earth was like millions of years ago. It’s like being a time detective, solving mysteries from the past.

Ammonite Ammonites were ancient sea creatures with beautiful spiral shells. They lived in the oceans long before people existed and are cousins of today’s squid and octopus. Think of them as underwater dinosaurs with swirly houses!

Fossilisation Imagine a dinosaur footprint pressed into soft mud. Over millions of years, it becomes rock and stays there forever! Fossilisation is nature’s way of saving memories in stone.

Stratigraphy The Earth is made of layers, just like a giant cake or a storybook. Stratigraphy is the science of reading those layers to discover what happened long ago, one page of rock at a time.

Fossil A fossil is a plant, animal, footprint, or shell that has been preserved for millions of years. It’s like nature’s photograph from the age of dinosaurs.

Trace Fossil Not all fossils are bones! A trace fossil is something an animal left behind, like a footprint or a burrow. It’s like finding the tracks of a secret visitor from the past.

Sediment Tiny grains of sand, mud, and rock slowly settle on top of each other to make new layers. Sediment is Earth’s blanket, gently covering ancient treasures.

Excavation An excavation is a careful dig where scientists uncover fossils and ancient objects. It’s like opening a treasure chest that has been buried for millions of years.

Carbon Dating Everything that was once alive has a tiny amount of carbon inside it. Carbon dating is a way scientists measure that carbon to find out how old something is. It’s like using a scientific clock inside old bones, wood, or plants to tell how far back in time they come from.

Radiometric Dating Rocks don’t have carbon, so scientists use a different method called radiometric dating. It measures tiny changes inside rocks to work out their age. Think of it as reading a hidden stopwatch built into the Earth itself.

Creative Extension: Make Your Own Fossils

Children can become palaeontologists at home and create their own “fossils” using simple kitchen ingredients and everyday objects.

1. Mix 1 cup flour, ½ cup salt, and ½ cup water to make a soft dough.
2. Roll it out flat, then press in shells, leaves, toy dinosaurs, or small objects to create fossil impressions.
3. Carefully remove the objects and leave the “fossils” to dry overnight, or bake on a low heat with adult supervision.
4. Once ready, swap your fossils with family members and try to guess what made each imprint!

Keep Exploring

Follow us on Facebook and Instagram, and visit littlehouseofscience.com for upcoming workshops and camps.

Happy fossil hunting!

The Little House of Science Team