Born in England in 1799, Mary Anning loved to dig for strange stone shapes buried in the crumbly clay cliffs of Dorset. She called them "curiosities" and sold them to tourists. But her neighbors, the Philpot sisters, trained as scientists, recognize them as something else: fossils, the remains of ancient creatures.

Annie Philpot shows Mary a huge tooth. "From a great sea monster," she explains. "If anyone could ever find the rest of the creature, Mary, that would be the greatest treasure of all." So the determined girl keeps searching. And although only twelve years old, she makes one of the most important scientific discoveries of her time.

With splendid artwork that imagines both Mary Anning's early-nineteenth-century world and the prehistoric landscape of dinosaurs, this fascinating book introduces today's young dinosaur lovers to one of history's most celebrated fossil finders.

From the dust jacket