Pioneering fossil collectors and geologists

Mary Anning

Arguably the most notorious fossil hunter to date, Mary Anning considered the Jurassic Coast, specifically Lyme Regis, her home and hunting ground. Discover all about Mary Anning and her legacy.

Elizabeth Philpot

Elizabeth Philpot (1780-1857), albeit less well known internationally, was a contemporary and friend of Mary Anning as well as being a remarkable fossil collector in her own right. Elizabeth’s knowledge of fossil fish and her extensive collection of specimens was renowned by fellow geologists and palaeontologists of the time, including William Buckland and Louis Agassiz. Philpot and her sisters moved to Lyme in 1805 and established a fossil ‘museum’ from their collection. Their collection was sent to the Oxford University Museum of Natural History for display in 1880 but subsequently returned home to the Jurassic Coast when a museum was built in their honour by their nephew Thomas Philpot. This Museum is now the Lyme Regis Museum and still contains their collection. Philpot was also an artist and discovered that fossil ink could be revived with water and used for illustrations after Mary Anning uncovered that belemnites contained fossilised ink sacs.

Samuel Beckles

Samuel Husbands Beckles (1814-1890) was a Bajan/English lawyer who undertook considerable palaeontological excavations in the UK. After being approached by Richard Owen following small vertebrate and early mammal remains by other collectors from the early Cretaceous beds in the Purbeck strate of Durlston Bay, Beckles decided to excavate here further. The extensive ‘Beckles’ Pit’ excavation was paid for and supervised by Samuel Beckles in Durlston, Swanage, England.

typical Victorian dress of top hat and tails on the excavation at Durlston.

This still infamous excavation contributed significantly to our scientific understanding of many species, particularly of early mammal fossils. At least twelve species of mammals were recovered, along with the remains of reptiles, coprolites, insects and freshwater shells. He discovered the small herbivorous dinosaur Echinodon becklesii, the mammal Plagiaulax becklesii, and the dinosaur Becklespinax, which were named in his honour. He went on to publish literature about dinosaur footprints from Swanage.

William Buckland

William Buckland (1784 –1856) made many contributions to our knowledge of the Jurassic Coast as an avid geologist and palaeontologist. Born in Axminster, Devon, he left to study at Oxford University, where he would go on to give lectures in geology, yet returned frequently on holidays to Lyme Regis. It is during these trips to Lyme Regis that he first met contemporaries including Mary Anning and Henry De la Beche. He married Mary Morland in 1825, who assisted with much of his geological work and was a renowned fossil illustrator. William Buckland is known for his extensive research, alongside Mary Anning, on coprolites, among other notorieties. Yet his most crucial finding was of enormous fossilised bones of a giant reptile unearthed initially in the Cotswolds (England), which he named ‘Megalosaurus’ (meaning great lizard). This publication went on to become the first account of what would later be known as a dinosaur!

Mary Buckland (nee Moorland)

Mary Buckland (1797- 1857) developed a passion for palaeontology, collaborating to provide beautiful scientific illustration for contemporaries such as William Conybeare and her husband William Buckland. Indeed, Mary played an important role in much of her husband’s work and success as a geologist (albeit relatively silently as was the way for women of the time) which should be celebrated. Her assistance in William Buckland’s experiments to reproduce fossil footprints and traces as well as developing cements for conservation and fossil models were crucial to her husband’s scientific success. Additionally, Mary’s collection of rare sponges were described in publications by Charles Lyell and Louis Agassiz.

Mary was also skilled in both fossil collection and fossil curation and conservation, assisting at the Oxford University Museum of Natural History.

William Conybeare

other sections. A group of people in Victorian dress are shown in the foreground.

Dunster Goat Island – Bindon landslide illustration

William Conybeare (1787 –1857), a geologist, palaeontologist and clergyman, is known for his pioneering work on marine reptile fossils in the 1820s. This work included important papers for the Geological Society of London on ichthyosaur anatomy and the first published scientific description of a plesiosaur.

Living his later years in Axminster, just inland from the Jurassic Coast, he witnessed the great Bindon landslip that occurred between Lyme Regis and Seaton in 1839. Alongside contemporaries including William and Mary Buckland, Bonybeare wrote a detailed account of this great landslip that is still referred to today.

Henry de la Beche

d walking in the scene and one long necked marine reptile is eating another.

Duria antiquior

Henry De La Beche (1796–1855) lived in Lyme Regis as a child, where his love for geology and fossils bloomed, particularly through his friendship with Mary Anning. He went on to become a prominent figure in the geology of the Jurassic Coast, and had regular contact with other leading geologists, including William Buckland, William Conybeare, and Mary Anning.

As was the sad reality for many of the wealthier families of the era, de la Beche’s wealth came largely from the slave trade.

Having joined the Geological Society of London in 1817, de la Beche was made a Fellow of the Royal Society at the relatively young age of 23. An avid fossil collector and illustrator, he collaborated with Conybeare and Buckland on important publications predominantly regarding the fossil reptiles found in the Jurassic Lias beds around Lyme as well as producing a detailed stratigraphy of the Lias, Greensand and Chalk rocks at Lyme and Beer.

Arguably his most famous contribution to the Jurassic Coast is via his celebrated lithograph ‘Duria antiquior’ (1830). Pictured here, the pioneering image depicts the flora and fauna of a previous time, showing prehistoric creatures such as the plesiosaur, ichthyosaur and pterosaur.