Elizabeth Philpot

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Elizabeth Philpot (* 1780 in London ; † 1857 in Lyme Regis ) was a British fossil collector of the early 19th century, an amateur paleontologist and artist who collected fossils around Lyme Regis in Dorset on the south coast of England .

Life and friendship with Mary Anning

Elizabeth Philpot was born in London in 1780, one of five children and moved to Lyme Regis with her sisters Mary and Margaret in 1805. The three sisters shared a house (Morley Cottage, now Mariner's Hotel) that the London lawyer and brother had bought for them. They lived there until their death. None of the three sisters married.

After they settled in Lyme, they became known for their fossil collection, but also for their homemade medicine , a pain relieving ointment that they made and sold themselves.

Elizabeth Philpot made friends with Mary Anning when she was a child. Despite the almost 20 year age difference and the fact that Anning came from a much poorer class, while Elizabeth came from the wealthy middle class, they became friends and were seen collecting fossils together almost every day. Philpot encouraged the young Anning to read geological writings and thus understand the science behind the fossils she had collected and sold.

Fossils

The extensive and meticulously documented fossil collection of the Philpot sisters was used by many geologists for their scientific research. All three sisters contributed to the documentation and expansion of this collection, but it was Elizabeth Philpot who corresponded with leading geologists such as William Buckland , William Daniel Conybeare and Henry Thomas de la Beche about this collection. The collection was particularly famous for its fossilized fish. The collection also included the fossil teeth that William Buckland assembled with a famous partial fossil discovered by Mary Anning, which he described as the pterosaur Pterodactylus macronyx in 1829 . ( Pterodactylus macronyx was later renamed Dimorphodon macronyx by Richard Owen .) When William Daniel Conybeare described the almost completely preserved plesiosaur skeleton that Anning had found in 1823 in his famous report in 1824 , he also mentioned a plesiosaur skull that was in the possession of " Miss Philpot “found. In 1834, Buckland organized a visit to Lyme for the Swiss paleontologist Louis Agassiz so that he could work with Elizabeth Philpot and Mary Anning. Agassiz was able to search for fish fossils with them and to scientifically examine and classify them together with the two women. They were able to show him fossils of 34 different fish species that they found in the area. Agassiz was impressed by the knowledge and experience of Elizabeth Philpot and Mary Anning and wrote in his diary: "Miss Philpot and Mary Anning were able to show me with absolute certainty which dorsal fin spines of sharks correspond to which shark species." thanked both women for their help in his monumental book Recherches sur les poissons fossiles (1833–1843) and named a fish fossil species Eugnathus Philpotae after Elizabet Philpot and two other species after Mary Anning.

Fossil ink

In 1826, Mary Anning discovered what appeared to be a chamber in a belemnite fossil that contained dried ink . Anning showed it to her friend Philpot. She was able to liquefy the ink by mixing it with water, and used this fossil ink for some of her own illustrations of ichthyosaur fossil finds. Other local illustrators soon followed suit when more fossilized ink remains were found.

During petrification, depending on the layer, a kind of gagat has formed in the belemnites, which can be ground and mixed with water to form an ink-like liquid. Although it is now known that nothing is left of the original ink (see fossilization ), petrified ink is still marketable today.

legacy

The Philpot Sisters' extensive fossil collection is now housed in the Oxford University Museum .

Her nephew Thomas Philpot built the Philpot Museum in Lyme Regis in her honor, which is now called the Lyme Regis Museum .

Trivia

Tracy Chevalier published the novel Two Notable Women in 2009 , in which the life story of Elizabeth Philpot and Mary Anning serves as the basis of a fictional romance novel.

In 2010 an Australian film production company secured the right to film the book.

review

Nowadays she is best known for her collaboration and friendship with the more famous Mary Anning . Elizabeth Philpot was well known in geological circles both for her knowledge of fish fossils and for her extensive collection of specimens. She was consulted by leading geologists and paleontologists of her time, including William Buckland and Louis Agassiz . When Mary Anning found out that there were belemnite fossils with an (seemingly) intact ink pouch , it was Philpot who discovered that the petrified ink could be mixed with water and used for illustration , which became a common practice with local illustrators.

Literature (selection)

  • Conybeare, William: On the Discovery of an almost perfect Skeleton of the Plesiosaurus , Geological Society of London, 1824, Retrieved January 15, 2010
  • Emling, Shelley: The Fossil Hunter: Dinosaurs, Evolution, and the Woman whose Discoveries Changed the World , Palgrove Macmillan, 2009, ISBN 978-0230611566
  • McGowan, Christopher: The Dragon Seekers , Perseus Publishing, 2001, ISBN 0-7382-0282-7 .
  • Ogilvie, Marilyn; Harvey, Joy: The Biographical Dictionary of Women in Science: LZ , Routledge, 2000, ISBN 0-415-92039-6
  • Torrens, Hugh: Mary Anning (1799-1847) of Lyme: 'the greatest fossilist the world ever knew' , 25, Journal for the History of Science, pp. 257-284, 1995, JSTOR 4027645

Web links

  • Fossil ink on Dailymail.co.uk, accessed December 27, 2011

Notes and sources

  1. ^ Remarkable Creatures , accessed December 28, 2011
  2. ↑ Ogilvie 2000, p. 1018
  3. ↑ Emling 2009, pp. 17, 40, 65-66
  4. ↑ Ogilvie 2000, p. 1018
  5. ↑ Jane Davidson: "The Princess of Paleontology". The Dinosaur Interplanetary Gazette. Retrieved February 11, 2010
  6. ↑ Torrens 1995
  7. ^ Conybeare 1824
  8. ↑ Emling 2009, pp. 166-170
  9. ↑ McGowen 2001, p. 20
  10. ↑ Emling 2009, p. 109
  11. ↑ Torrens 1995
  12. ↑ Ogilvie 2000, p. 1018
  13. ↑ Two remarkable women. ( Remarkable Creatures. ) Knaus Verlag, Munich 2010, ISBN 978-3-8135-0368-5
  14. ^ Memorable TV The Galvanized Film Group Acquires Film Rights to Tracy Chevalier's novel Remarkable Creatures , accessed December 26, 2011
personal data
SURNAME Philpot, Elizabeth
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British fossil collector and early paleontologist
DATE OF BIRTH 1780
PLACE OF BIRTH London
DATE OF DEATH 1857
Place of death Lyme Regis