Remarkable Creatures - Novel and Field Trip

Some of you may know I have a childlike obsession with dinosaurs.  When I picked up Tracy Chevalier's Remarkable Creatures, I was totally engrossed by her two main characters - Mary Anning and Elizabeth Philpot, lady fossil hunters.  That's right, dinosaurs meets feminism!  It was only when I finished the book that I realized it was historical fiction.

Yea that's right, Mary Anning was a totally real, totally badass lady fossil hunter.  She and her brother found the first correctly identified Ichthyosaur when she was just twelve years old.  She's credited with a whole host of scientific discoveries and she's the inspiration for the "she sells seashells" tongue twister. 

So you can imagine my excitement when browsing in the Harvard Museum of Natural History I saw this:

History is so cool!  Dinosaurs are so cool!  Are you imagining all the jumping up and down and excited museum whispers that were going on?  It was kind of epic. 

The book is fantastic and the Harvard Museum of Natural History has a great collection (with free admission if you can find a Harvard student to take you as a guest).  I highly recommend both.