"The world has (0) USED (USE) me so 1KIND, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone."
These were the words of one of Victorian England's most 2INNOVATE scientific researchers, a paleontologist and fossil collector who spent a lifetime hunting for finds in southern England. Their knowledge and 3SEE did much to influence geological thinking.
The researcher had unlikely beginnings: one of ten children, 4BEAR in 1799 to a carpenter and his wife in the small coastal town of Lyme Regis, with a limited education and few opportunities to read widely. However, the father's sideline — selling fossils to tourists — gave the young geologist a head start in practical science. Their family shop was known throughout Europe as a mecca for 5COUNT collectors and enthusiasts.
The rough seas along England's south coast often cause landslides, revealing fossils. Collecting them quickly can be dangerous work. However, this often 6COMFORT and difficult research led to some amazing 7DISCOVER: ichthyosaurs, plesiosaurs and pterosaurs.
And yet, with all this experience, this researcher was denied membership of the eminent Geological Society of London, and their research appeared only once in scientific journals during their lifetime. What was the reason for this 8OBSCURE? Mary Anning was a woman.