Mary Anning had a knack for finding fascinating pieces of the distant past. In the 19th century, Anning regularly scoured the beaches of Lyme Regis, in the English county of Dorset. Her many expeditions turned up some fascinating and high-profile finds from millions of years ago, including fossils of plesiosaurs and ichthyosaurs, marine reptiles that prowled the waters of the Triassic and Cretaceous periods. Anning also collected some less-sexy specimens—particularly, coprolites. From the Greek for “dung stone,” coprolites are chunks of fossilized crap. They may not be as enthralling as…
