The Girl Who Was Struck by Lightning
Mary Anning discovered the first ichthyosaur skeleton at twelve, the first complete plesiosaur, the first British pterosaur. She taught herself anatomy, geology, and French to read Cuvier. Leading geologists consulted her before publishing. She could not join the Geological Society, attend meetings, or put her name on a paper. She went to the cliffs anyway — every day, in every weather, racing the tides. Her neighbors had a theory: at fifteen months old, she survived a lightning strike that killed three women instantly. Before it, she'd been sickly and listless. After, she was something else entirely.
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