Tom Sharpe
@tomsharperocks.bsky.social
Geologist, writes on the history of geology and palaeontology, especially in the late 18th–early 19th C, and on the history of geology in Antarctica. Patron Lyme Regis Museum. Author of THE FOSSIL WOMAN A LIFE OF MARY ANNING (Dovecote Press 2020).
20 January 1814: newspapers report that entrepreneur William Bullock was sending a natural history exhibition to Edinburgh. Amongst the specimens is 'the fossil head of a crocodile, lately found in Dorsetshire', the ichthyosaur found by #MaryAnning & her brother, on perhaps its first public display.
January 20, 2026 at 6:52 AM
20 January 1814: newspapers report that entrepreneur William Bullock was sending a natural history exhibition to Edinburgh. Amongst the specimens is 'the fossil head of a crocodile, lately found in Dorsetshire', the ichthyosaur found by #MaryAnning & her brother, on perhaps its first public display.
#MolluscMonday: rudist-rich red limestone decorative paving, Granada, Andalusia.
January 19, 2026 at 10:32 AM
#MolluscMonday: rudist-rich red limestone decorative paving, Granada, Andalusia.
This morning’s mist-draped Lammermuirs in the pre-dawn.
January 19, 2026 at 8:18 AM
This morning’s mist-draped Lammermuirs in the pre-dawn.
Some photos from a damp walk in East Lothian today.
January 18, 2026 at 5:03 PM
Some photos from a damp walk in East Lothian today.
18 January 1778, London: birth of George Bellas (Greenough from 1795), founding president of the Geological Society and compiler of the Society's 1820 geological map of England and Wales. In 1813 he visited Lyme Regis and purchased a fossil 'crocodile' from 'Mrs Anning's curiosity shop'. #MaryAnning
January 18, 2026 at 12:07 PM
18 January 1778, London: birth of George Bellas (Greenough from 1795), founding president of the Geological Society and compiler of the Society's 1820 geological map of England and Wales. In 1813 he visited Lyme Regis and purchased a fossil 'crocodile' from 'Mrs Anning's curiosity shop'. #MaryAnning
Some photos from this afternoon’s walk along the East Lothian Tyne.
January 17, 2026 at 4:49 PM
Some photos from this afternoon’s walk along the East Lothian Tyne.
News from Lyme Regis, 17 January 1831: 'Miss Anning has again made a discovery of a grand fossil animal ... Geologists are now very numerous: perhaps much more than at any former period'. Then at the height of her fame, #MaryAnning and her discoveries attracted droves of fossil collectors to Lyme.
January 17, 2026 at 10:50 AM
News from Lyme Regis, 17 January 1831: 'Miss Anning has again made a discovery of a grand fossil animal ... Geologists are now very numerous: perhaps much more than at any former period'. Then at the height of her fame, #MaryAnning and her discoveries attracted droves of fossil collectors to Lyme.
Reposted by Tom Sharpe
For #FossilFriday a small #IsleofWight iguanodontian dinosaur tibia in the collections @nhm-london.bsk.social. What makes it special is that it is from the Gideon Mantell collection. The fossil takes me back 125 million years but its history casts me back to the 1820s.
January 16, 2026 at 12:42 PM
For #FossilFriday a small #IsleofWight iguanodontian dinosaur tibia in the collections @nhm-london.bsk.social. What makes it special is that it is from the Gideon Mantell collection. The fossil takes me back 125 million years but its history casts me back to the 1820s.
#FossilFriday: archaeocyathid reef mound in the Lower Cambrian Labrador Group Forteau Formation on the Great Northern Peninsula, Western Newfoundland.
January 16, 2026 at 11:57 AM
#FossilFriday: archaeocyathid reef mound in the Lower Cambrian Labrador Group Forteau Formation on the Great Northern Peninsula, Western Newfoundland.
Great to learn today that a new mineral has been named after #MaryAnning. Anningite-Ce (Ca0.5Ce4+0.5)(VO4) was identified, appropriately, in a coprolite from the Cretaceous Gara Samani Formation in Algeria.
www.mindat.org/min-471626.h...
www.mindat.org/min-471626.h...
January 15, 2026 at 12:29 PM
Great to learn today that a new mineral has been named after #MaryAnning. Anningite-Ce (Ca0.5Ce4+0.5)(VO4) was identified, appropriately, in a coprolite from the Cretaceous Gara Samani Formation in Algeria.
www.mindat.org/min-471626.h...
www.mindat.org/min-471626.h...
Reposted by Tom Sharpe
The #BritishMuseum opened to the public for the 1st time #OTD in 1759. Happy 267th anniversary! Here is the Trustees’ Minute where the date was agreed & the design for the tickets needed to get in. #archives
January 15, 2026 at 9:55 AM
The #BritishMuseum opened to the public for the 1st time #OTD in 1759. Happy 267th anniversary! Here is the Trustees’ Minute where the date was agreed & the design for the tickets needed to get in. #archives
14 January 1836: Sir Philip Egerton tells his friend #MaryAnning that he has been taking his ichthyosaur specimens apart to study the neck bones 'like a little boy pulling my toys to pieces to see what they are made of' and asks for more specimens he can 'pull to pieces' for a paper he is preparing.
January 14, 2026 at 10:50 AM
14 January 1836: Sir Philip Egerton tells his friend #MaryAnning that he has been taking his ichthyosaur specimens apart to study the neck bones 'like a little boy pulling my toys to pieces to see what they are made of' and asks for more specimens he can 'pull to pieces' for a paper he is preparing.
#MolluscMonday: a lichen-encrusted example of the large Late Jurassic ammonite Titanites at Portland, Dorset.
January 12, 2026 at 6:32 AM
#MolluscMonday: a lichen-encrusted example of the large Late Jurassic ammonite Titanites at Portland, Dorset.
A wonderful place! In 1825 #MaryAnning led geologists Roderick and Charlotte Murchison on an excursion to the Undercliff. It was also where John Fowles (who lived at Underhill Farm, and later was Hon Curator of Lyme Regis Museum) set a key scene in The French Lieutenant's Woman.
A few photos from the amazing Undercliff, near Lyme Regis, Dorset: a topsy-turvy, otherworldly place, where the land is constantly swallowing itself, which proved to be a major inspiration for my latest novel... especially this extract: www.tom-cox.com/granny-kettl...
January 11, 2026 at 6:24 PM
A wonderful place! In 1825 #MaryAnning led geologists Roderick and Charlotte Murchison on an excursion to the Undercliff. It was also where John Fowles (who lived at Underhill Farm, and later was Hon Curator of Lyme Regis Museum) set a key scene in The French Lieutenant's Woman.
Post a pic of the venue where you saw your first concert and the band or artist.
January 11, 2026 at 5:21 PM
Post a pic of the venue where you saw your first concert and the band or artist.
The Bridges of Berwick.
January 10, 2026 at 6:32 PM
The Bridges of Berwick.
#PostboxSaturday: a pillar box with an EIIR cypher today, so I’ve clearly strayed across the border.
January 10, 2026 at 6:23 PM
#PostboxSaturday: a pillar box with an EIIR cypher today, so I’ve clearly strayed across the border.
#FossilFriday: a partial ichthyosaur skull, the published figure from an 1822 paper (left), and a hand-drawn copy of the plate by #MaryAnning (right). Although unrecorded, the fossil may have been in the collection of Thomas Birch, and been found originally by Anning in the Lias of Lyme Regis.
January 9, 2026 at 10:05 AM
#FossilFriday: a partial ichthyosaur skull, the published figure from an 1822 paper (left), and a hand-drawn copy of the plate by #MaryAnning (right). Although unrecorded, the fossil may have been in the collection of Thomas Birch, and been found originally by Anning in the Lias of Lyme Regis.
8 January 1823: newspapers report on the first donation to Bristol Institution's new museum – a fine Ichthyosaurus communis from Lyme Regis, purchased for £50 from #MaryAnning by 9 of the Institution's members, including Henry De la Beche and William Conybeare who described Ichthyosaurus in 1821.
January 8, 2026 at 2:28 PM
8 January 1823: newspapers report on the first donation to Bristol Institution's new museum – a fine Ichthyosaurus communis from Lyme Regis, purchased for £50 from #MaryAnning by 9 of the Institution's members, including Henry De la Beche and William Conybeare who described Ichthyosaurus in 1821.
8 January 1766: birth of fossil collector Henry Henley at Sandringham House, Norfolk. He inherited property in Lyme Regis, leased land to Richard Anning in 1808, & in 1812 bought fossils from Mrs Mary Anning, including a 'fossil crocodile' found by young #MaryAnning & her brother on Henley's land.
January 8, 2026 at 11:05 AM
8 January 1766: birth of fossil collector Henry Henley at Sandringham House, Norfolk. He inherited property in Lyme Regis, leased land to Richard Anning in 1808, & in 1812 bought fossils from Mrs Mary Anning, including a 'fossil crocodile' found by young #MaryAnning & her brother on Henley's land.
Soon after the landslip occurred, geologists William and Mary Buckland, William Conybeare and Mary Anning were on the scene. William Buckland said it was worth coming 500 miles to see. Conybeare, the Bucklands & Exeter surveyor William Dawson published an illustrated account of the landslip in 1840.
This beautiful colour plate shows rock formations on the East Devon coast caused by landslips between December 1839 & February 1840. Corn grew on the rocks that had fallen from the fields above, attracting fascinated visitors.
📷 Reserve 554.235 DAW/XX (1840)
#OldRockDay #Geology #RareBooks #Devon
📷 Reserve 554.235 DAW/XX (1840)
#OldRockDay #Geology #RareBooks #Devon
January 7, 2026 at 10:19 AM
Soon after the landslip occurred, geologists William and Mary Buckland, William Conybeare and Mary Anning were on the scene. William Buckland said it was worth coming 500 miles to see. Conybeare, the Bucklands & Exeter surveyor William Dawson published an illustrated account of the landslip in 1840.
As Mary Anning returns from the Christmas tree to her lair in the box of Anningiana, she'll shortly be joined by a prototype wooden Mary Anning peg doll, kindly sent to me by friends in Lyme Regis.
January 7, 2026 at 10:04 AM
As Mary Anning returns from the Christmas tree to her lair in the box of Anningiana, she'll shortly be joined by a prototype wooden Mary Anning peg doll, kindly sent to me by friends in Lyme Regis.
3 January 1802: birth of civil engineer & palaeontologist Proby Thomas Cautley who planned the Ganges Canal & with Hugh Falconer collected & published on the fossils of the Siwalik Hills. Cautley visited Lyme Regis soon after Mary Anning's death and purchased several books which had belonged to her.
![Inscription by Proby Cautley in one of the books he purchased: 'Lyme April 3 1847. Mary Anning whose name is so often mentioned by Buckland & others in connection with the Lias of Lyme Regis died just before I visited the place on the above date - This book [The History and Antiquities of Lyme Regis by George Roberts] with "the Palaeozoic Fossils" [by John Phillips] I bought from her Executors [her brother, Joseph].'](https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbnail/plain/did:plc:vcl75pfg74dsskrzvynq5rez/bafkreigcppacatbgaq3myybrhrx6v56rfhhqo4armmrg2wa2z5jviextq4@jpeg)
January 3, 2026 at 7:39 PM
3 January 1802: birth of civil engineer & palaeontologist Proby Thomas Cautley who planned the Ganges Canal & with Hugh Falconer collected & published on the fossils of the Siwalik Hills. Cautley visited Lyme Regis soon after Mary Anning's death and purchased several books which had belonged to her.
The Bass Rock was looking good today.
January 3, 2026 at 6:00 PM
The Bass Rock was looking good today.
Some pics from today’s East Lothian walk in the glacial meltwater channel at Balgone: frozen flooded woodland; a cliff of Early Carboniferous basalts of the East Linton Volcanic Member; a view across the ponds; a view east along the meltwater channel with the basalt scarp on the south side.
January 3, 2026 at 5:52 PM
Some pics from today’s East Lothian walk in the glacial meltwater channel at Balgone: frozen flooded woodland; a cliff of Early Carboniferous basalts of the East Linton Volcanic Member; a view across the ponds; a view east along the meltwater channel with the basalt scarp on the south side.