The above wonderful lithograph is by Georg Scharf, based on a watercolor painted by English geologist Henry De la Beche in 1830, based in turn largely on fossils discovered by Mary Anning, the self-taught paleontologist whom I read about at age nine, as previously discussed in yesterday’s brief post regarding Christopher Colombus. “Duria Antiquior” is the first reconstruction of the prehistoric past in history.
Mary is an altogether more sympathetic figure than old Chris. The daughter of a cabinet maker who grew up in the environs of Lyme Regis, a town on the Dorset coast of England, her story is told in absorbing detail in Wikipedia. De la Beche created this watercolor, swarming with ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs, and pterosaurs, all creatures whose fossils were discovered, recovered, and assembled by Mary and sold in her shop, Anning’s Fossil Depot. Since Mary was, of course, denied any opportunity for an academic career by circumstances of birth, both “low” and female, she was often short of money. De la Beche commissioned the lithograph, and sold copies of it to his friends, to raise money for Mary. With both Chris and Harvey Weinstein in the news, isn’t it nice to read about some decent folks for a change? Though one might wonder if “Duria Antiquior” couldn’t also be titled “Contemporary Hollywood”.
