English palaeontologist Mary Anning was BOTD in 1799. Born in Lyme Regis, Dorset to an impoverished working-class family, she was one of ten children but one of only two who survived to adulthood. She attended a Congregationalist Sunday school where she learned to read and write. As a child, she accompanied her father on fossil-finding expeditions along the Dorset coast, selling their finds to tourists and dealers to supplement the family’s income. After her father’s death in 1810, the family were required to apply for poor relief. At 12, she and her brother Joseph discovered the skeleton of a marine reptile, later identified as an ichthyosaur, which they sold to the British Museum. In 1817, her discoveries attracted the attention of fossil collector Lieut. Col. Thomas Birch, who assisted the family financially by purchasing a number of specimens. Anning taught herself geology, anatomy, palaeontology, and scientific illustration, becoming a skilled identifier of fossils. Her most famous find occurred in 1824 when she uncovered the first intact Plesiosaurus skeleton, attracting the recognition of the scientific community. She became a celebrity, prompting collectors and tourists to travel to Lyme Regis to buy from her. She went on to recover additional Ichthyosaurus and plesiosaur skeletons from the cliffs, and uncovered a pterosaur in 1828, the first specimen found outside Germany. In 1829 she excavated the skeleton of Squaloraja, a fossil fish thought to be a transitional species between sharks and rays. Her observations played a key role in evolutionary theories, especially in relation to extinction. Despite her success, she was seldom given credit for her discoveries. In her later years, Anning was paid annuities from the British Association for the Advancement of Science and the Geological Society of London, in recognition of her contributions to science. She died of breast cancer in 1847, aged 47. Amid many posthumous tributes, her home was converted into the Lyme Regis Museum in 1902. Anning never married or had children, and little is known about her intimate relationships. She was portrayed by Kate Winslet in Francis Lee‘s 2020 film Ammonite, in which she has a (probably fictional) lesbian relationship with the wife of a fossil collector.