Left: Portrait William Conybeare age 65. Right: 1824 letter from William Conybeare's re his first scientific reconstruction of the skeletons of plesiosaur and ichthyosaur. This accompanied his submission to the Geological Society for the \On the Discovery of an almost perfect Skeleton of the Plesiosaurus\" Trans. Geol. Soc., Second Series, Volume 1, page 381-390. A partial skeleton without a head had been found by Mary Anning and described by Conybeare in 1821 but its anatomy seemed so outlandish that a fake, or misinterpretation, was suspected. It was only with this very perfect skeleton that another strange prehistoric reptile was accepted and added to the ichthyosaur and mososaur. In the letter Conybeare mentions an original drawing of the specimen by Mary Anning and implies its importance. Biographers of Anning point out she received little formal credit for her discoveries."