In 1822, English doctor Gideon Mantell discovered a set of big teeth. He was convinced they belonged to a creature from the deep past. But fossil experts laughed at him.

Three years later, geologistA scientists who studies rocks and other materials that make up the Earth's surface. William Buckland found a huge skeleton in OxfordshireA county in England. . The first dinosaur had been discovered. Mantell was proven right. He made detailed drawings of his findings.

Today the Mantell drawings are owned by London's Royal Society, the world's oldest scientific organisation. They feature in a new digital archive, revealed this week.

Mantell's findings were remarkable. But it is not the full story. Many historians think that it was Mary Ann, Mantell's wife, who first discovered the bones. She also helped him with the drawings. But Mary received no credit. In 1839, she left him - and disappeared from the pages of history.

The collection reveals much about women in science. It features writings by astronomer siblings William and Caroline Herschel. Caroline discovered a new nebulaA cloud of gas or dust in outer space. and galaxy before her brother. But it was William who became the first president of the Royal Astronomical Society in 1820. Caroline was hired as his assistant.

There have been many famous women scientists, including Ada LovelaceAn English mathematician known as the first computer programmer. and Marie CurieA Polish-French pioneer in the study of radioactivity and the first woman to win a Nobel Prize.. But there are many more famous men. Eight Nobel PrizesA set of prizes, laid out in the will of Swedish chemist Alfred Nobel, given each year to people who "have conferred the greatest benefit to humankind". in chemistry have been given to women, 183 to men. In physics, the ratio is four to 218.

Herschel and Lovelace lived at a time when few women even went to school. That they succeeded against the odds makes them, if anything, more remarkable than their male counterparts.

Others believe that we cannot massage the past. The history of science is a story of discoveries. And one cannot deny that the majority of those can be credited to men.

Yes: There might be hundreds of cases in which a man has taken credit for a woman's work. The Mantells' story is just one instance. Historians should address this and give credit where it is truly due.

No: The novelist James Baldwin wrote: "People are trapped in history and history is trapped in them." We cannot ignore that science was male-dominated. The important thing is to make a more equal future.

Or... It is a mistake to view history through the lens of gender in the first place. The Herschels, Lovelace, the Mantells: all of them were distinct individuals, not just representatives of their gender.