Google Doodle -- Mary Anning, 19th century paleontologist.
She became well known in geological circles in Britain, Europe, and America, and was consulted on issues of anatomy as well as about collecting fossils. Nonetheless, as a woman, she was not eligible to join the Geological Society of London and she did not always receive full credit for her scientific contributions. Indeed, she wrote in a letter: "The world has used me so unkindly, I fear it has made me suspicious of everyone." The only scientific writing of hers published in her lifetime appeared in the Magazine of Natural History in 1839, an extract from a letter that Anning had written to the magazine's editor questioning one of its claims.
After her death in 1847, her unusual life story attracted increasing interest. Charles Dickens wrote of her in 1865 that "[t]he carpenter's daughter has won a name for herself, and has deserved to win it." In 2010, one hundred and sixty-three years after her death, the Royal Society included Anning in a list of the ten British women who have most influenced the history of science.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Anning
Humanity could be so much more than we are if we did not crush the souls of so many for such wretched, ignorant and pointless bigotry as sexism, racism, religion... the list is long.
It's a rare soul like Mary Anning who overcomes in spite of the oppression.
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I would like to submit another unrecognized paleontologist to the list because this OP brought back a memory that I'd like to share about a paleontologist of the last century, who happened to be a woman...
Marie Hopkins of Pocatello, Idaho. She was one of two paleontologists allowed to explore Fort Hall Indian Reservation north of the city. She, unearthed the Great Latifrons (horns and portion of skull) of a Great Bison that was many thousand years old at Fort Hall. She submitted the details of her find to Harvard but they rebuffed her (because she was not male) though she had the backing of several other (male) faculty at Idaho State College (now ISU). She was instrumental in founding the Idaho Museum of Natural History located at the university and contributed numerous artifacts but her name never appeared on any honorable elements at the museum, the Latifrons is the logo and premier artifact at the museum. At the college she was a girls' phys-ed teacher and volleyball coach.
She mentored a young man (in the photo with hat and shovel - still wears a hat like that!) who bought her home where she passed in the late 1970s. Though he is now retired, he looks after a small foundation in her name at the university which offers scholarships to Native American students attending the university. I lived in her cabin while attending the university and alerted the museum director about her story and he started making her contributions more public. The man on far left in photo gave me a pile of photos and letters just before he passed because I was trying to have her home listed in the register of historic places and have her recognized at the museum.
Just goes to show how women are pushed out of the way because of gender, historically and currently. Hooray for Google making a female paleontologist known to the world, if only briefly.
my pleasure!
Glad you liked it. It was a mission for me for a couple years, since I lived in her home and loved it.
... was a Mrs. Reese, my 7th grade teacher. She was a fiercely independent woman, a widow, and when her only son died at 16 of leukemia, she bought a semi tractor trailer and spent her summer vacations digging for fossils out in Colorado. For several years after I had her as a teacher, she would bring back small specimens for me from her summer trips (I had a fascination with paleontology from 3rd grade, of which she was aware). Keep in mind this was back in the early 60's when the very idea of a semi-driving, fossil-hunting, middle-aged teacher from Appalachia sent most folks into apoplexy. I will always remember her fondly. She was very much an inspiration for me to pursue my education. I'm sure you will be doing the same for a whole new generation of girls who, like the starry-eyed 11 year old I was so many moons ago, dreamt of a world open to endless possibilities.
My best to you! 
