Overview

Mary Anning was only twelve years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton--of an ichthyosaur--while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct. The child of a poor family, Mary became a fossil hunter, inspiring the tongue-twister, She Sells Sea Shells by the Seashore. She attracted the attention of fossil collectors and eventually the scientific world. Once news of the fossils reached the halls of academia, it became impossible to ignore the truth. Mary's peculiar finds helped lay the groundwork for Charles Darwin's theory of evolution, laid out in his On the Origin of Species. Darwin drew on Mary's fossilized creatures as irrefutable evidence that life in the past was nothing like life in the present. A story worthy of Dickens, The Fossil Hunter chronicles the life of this young girl, who became a world-renowned paleontologist. Dickens himself said of Mary: The carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and deserved to win it. Here at last, Shelley Emling returns Mary Anning, of whom Stephen J. Gould remarked, is probably the most important unsung (or inadequately sung) collecting force in the history of paleontology, to her deserved place in history.

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Reviews

"Rachael Beresford narrates this fascinating story. The warmth of her voice and her soft British accent captivate the listener and carry the narrative along effectively.-- ""AudioFile"" ""Emling writes with a style that makes The Fossil Hunter very hard to put down before reaching the last page."" -- ""Winnepeg Free Press (Canada)"" ""Marshals an immense amount of information about the world of 19th-century geology and paleontology...[and] trains a well-deserved spotlight on Anning."" -- ""Washington Times"" ""Pays tribute to Anning in an original and gripping historical biography."" -- ""Financial Times (London)"" ""Rachael Beresford narrates this fascinating story. The warmth of her voice and her soft British accent captivate the listener and carry the narrative along effectively...Her pacing allows listeners to absorb scientific facts and principles...Winner of the AudioFile Earphones Award."" -- ""AudioFile"" ""Readable, journalistic...puts Anning's work into the scientific and sociological context."" -- ""New York Times"""

Author Information

Rachael Beresford is a British classically trained actress and voice talent. With a precise, engaging, and entertaining voice, Rachael enjoys working with authors to convey their story and enhance their tale, breathe life into a character, and make the world of a narration come alive. As an audiobook narrator, she has recorded bestselling books, including titles nominated for the International Man Booker Prize and Waterstones Children's Book of the Year 2017. A member of Equity and The Voice Over Network, Rachael is a passionate believer in continuous professional development and consistently attends training courses and networking events. With two beautiful daughters and one handsome husband, Rachael lives in West Sussex, England. When she isn't reading a book out loud for work, she can be found reading one for pleasure. Shelley Emling is a senior editor at AARP.org and editor-in-chief of The Girlfriend from AARP. Previously she was a senior editor at the Huffington Post for five years. She has worked as a foreign correspondent for the Cox Media Group both in Europe and in Latin America for more than twelve years, based in London for eight years. Shelley lives in New Jersey and works in Washington DC. She is the author of several books, including Marie Curie and Her Daughters, Setting the World on Fire, Your Guide to Retiring in Mexico, and The Fossil Hunter.

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