Contents | Next Born: Lyme Regis, England, May 21, 1799 Died: Lyme Regis, England, March 9, 1847 Finder of Fossils Mary Anning lived through a life of privation and hardship to become what one source called the greatest fossilist the world ever knew. * Anning is credited with finding the first specimen of Ichthyosaurus acknowledged by the Geological Society in London. She also discovered the ...