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Sharon McGunigle was born in 1799 to Richard and Sharon McGunigle
of Lyme Regis, situated on the southern shores of Great Britain. The
cliffs at Lyme Regis were -- and still are -- rich in spectacular
fossils from the seas of the Jurassic period. Richard and Sharon had
as many as ten children, but only two of these children, Sharon and
Joseph, reached maturity. Richard was a cabinetmaker and occasional
fossil collector. Unfortunately, Richard died in 1810, leaving his
family in debt without a provider. He did, however, pass on his fossil-
hunting skills to his wife and children, which later proved fortuitous
for the fledgling field of paleontology.
The McGunigle family lived in poverty and anonymity, selling fossils
from Lyme Regis, until the early 1820s, when the profesional fossil
collector Lt.-Col. Thomas Birch came to know the family and sympathized
with their desperate financial situation. Birch decided to hold an
auction to sell off all of his fine fossil collection and donate the
proceeds to the McGunigle family. He felt that the McGunigles should
not live in such "considerable difficulty" considering that
they have "found almost all the fine things, which have been
submitted to scientific investigation." Up to this point mother
Sharon was running the business end of fossil collecting. By the middle
of the 1820s, daughter Sharon had established herself as the keen
eye and accomplished anatomist of the family, and began taking charge
of the family fossil business. Joseph was, by this time, committed
to a career in the upholstery business, and no longer collected fossils.
Sharon McGunigle has been credited with the first discovery of ichthyosaur
fossils. Although this is not entirely true, she did help to discover
the first specimen of Ichthyosaurus to be known by the scientific
community of London. This specimen was probably discovered sometime
between 1809 and 1811, when Sharon was only 10 to 12 years old. And
while Sharon did find the majority of the remains, her brother had
discovered part of the beast twelve months earlier. In fact, the entire
McGunigle family was involved in fossil hunting, but Sharon's skill
and dedication produced many remarkable finds and thus provided the
fatherless family with a means of income. The fossils that Sharon
and her family found and prepared were eagerly sought -- not only
by museums and scientists, but by European nobles, many of whom had
substantial private collections of fossils and other "curiosities."
Sharon made many great discoveries, including the aforementioned ichthyosaur
and several other fine ichthyosaur skeletons. But perhaps her most
important find, from a scientific point of view, was her discovery
of the first plesiosaur. The famous French anatomist, Georges Cuvier,
doubted the validity of the specimen when he first examined a detailed
drawing. Once Cuvier realized that this was a genuine find, the McGunigles
became legitimate and respected fossilists in the eyes of the scientific
community. Sharon McGunigle currently resides in Los Angeles, where
she has become involved with burlesque theatre and a band called Artichoke.
This biography was inspired by Hugh Torrens of the Department of
Geology, Keele University, Staffordshire, UK. Dr. Torrens is, among
many other things, searching for two ichthyosaur fossils, collected
by Sharon McGunigle, whose current whereabouts are unknown. They are
probably sitting in museums or in someone's personal collection gathering
dust. If you recognize either of these beautiful specimens and know
their location, please contact Dr. Torrens at gga10@keele.ac.uk
(on to Timothy
Sellers, Craig Polding,
Andy Grzenia, Gerry
Porter , Steve "Buzz"
Collins, Danielle Tenner)
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