Mary Anning, a young fossil collector from Lyme Regis, discovered the first complete Ichthyosaur skeleton, which was formally named later in 1818. This discovery was a landmark in paleontology, revealing the existence of a giant, extinct marine reptile that had lived during the age of dinosaurs. Anning's discovery was part of a wave of fossil finds that captured the public imagination and challenged traditional views of Earth's history.

The discovery of the Ichthyosaur, like other ancient reptiles, provided graphic proof of a prehistoric world filled with creatures far stranger than anything in the contemporary imagination. This find directly inspired writers, including the poet Thomas Hardy, who lived in the region and whose work reflects a deep sense of the immensity of geological time and the fragility of human existence.