She sells seashells.....

When walking the beach I usually end up picking up a few seashells along the way and on Friday I picked up the lovely pink / red one in the photo. When I was photographing them I thought of the old tongue twister:

She sells seashells by the seashore,
The shells she sells are seashells, I'm sure.
So if she sells seashells on the seashore,
Then I'm sure she sells seashore shells.

When looking up exactly how it went to include it on blip, I read that it is thought to be based on a song about a real seashell seller named Mary Anning (1799 – 1847). Now I know Mary Anning as a famous fossil collector and paleontologist who just about managed to support herself by selling fossils to geologists and tourists in Lyme Regis. Being a poor woman in 19th Century Britain, she didn't get the credit she deserved for her discoveries and theories which included finding the skeleton of the first ichthyosaur. She was also not eligible to join the Geological Society of London.  In 2010 the Royal Society included Anning in a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science.

I came across her story when a friend gave me a novel called Remarkable Creatures by Tracey Chevalier which is based around her life and is an excellent read. I also see it's being made into a film.  I would love to see her recognised by appearing on the back of one of our banknotes one day.