Mary Anning; Georges Cuvier; Lower Jurassic; Lyme Regis; Ichthyosauria; Plesiosauria
Abstract :
[en] The real nature of marine reptile fossils found in England in between the 1700s to the beginning of the 1900s remained enigmatic, until Mary Anning's incredible fossil discoveries and their subsequent study by eminent English and French scientists. In 1820, Georges Cuvier acquired several ichthyosaur specimens found by Mary Anning, now kept or displayed in the Palaeontology Gallery of the MNHN in Paris. Four years later, Cuvier obtained a plesiosaur specimen from Mary Anning, only the second ever discovered. Cuvier was fascinated by these fossils and their study allowed him to apply his comparative anatomical method and to support his catastrophist theory. We re-examined these important specimens from an historical point of view and herein describe them taxonomically for the first time since Cuvier’s works. The Paris specimens belong to two different ichthyosaur genera (Ichthyosaurus and Leptonectes) and one plesiosaur genus (Plesiosaurus).
Disciplines :
Earth sciences & physical geography
Author, co-author :
Vincent, Peggy
Taquet, Philippe
Fischer, Valentin ; Université de Liège - ULiège > Département de géologie > Paléontologie animale et humaine
Bardet, Nathalie
Falconnet, Jocelyn
Godefroit, Pascal
Language :
English
Title :
Mary Anning’s legacy to French vertebrate palaeontology
Publication date :
2014
Journal title :
Geological Magazine
Publisher :
Cambridge University Press, New York, United States - New York
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