Mary Anning made her first discovery in 1811 at 12 years old, when her brother, Joseph, found a fossilized skull on the beaches of their seaside town of Lyme Regis in West Dorset, England. Over several months, Mary unearthed the near-complete skeleton of a marine reptile called an ichthyosaur. The death of Mary’s father, a cabinetmaker and fossil collector, left her family burdened with debt; the ichthyosaur had to be sold. Henry Henley, a local lord, bought it from the Annings for £23 and Mary’s...