Tourists used to visit Lyme Regis, which had become a popular seaside resort. As their father had before them, Mary and her brother Joseph Anning set up a table of 'curiosities' near the coach stop at a local inn to sell their wares to tourists. After Joseph made an important find of an ichthyosaur skull in 1810 and Mary found the associated skeleton a year later, they became known to the geologists and amateurs interested in fossils. Their passion for fossils grew to be the main source of income for their family.