Page "Mary Anning" Paragraph 37

By 1830, because of difficult economic conditions in Britain that reduced the demand for fossils, coupled with long gaps between major finds, Anning was having financial problems again.

Her friend the geologist Henry De la Beche assisted her by commissioning Georg Scharf to make a lithographic print based on De la Beche's watercolour painting, Duria Antiquior, portraying life in prehistoric Dorset that was largely based on fossils Anning had found.

De la Beche sold copies of the print to his fellow geologists and other wealthy friends and donated the proceeds to her.

It became the first such scene from what later became known as deep time to be widely circulated.

In December 1830 she finally made another major find, a skeleton of a new type of plesiosaur, which sold for £ 200.