paleontologist

American  

[pay-lee-uhn-tol-uh-jist, pal-ee-] / ˌpeɪ li ənˈtɒl ə dʒɪst, ˌpæl i- /

noun

• paleontologists
  plural

1. a scientist who specializes in the study of life forms that existed in previous geologic periods, as represented by their fossils.

   The education program manager for the museum has worked as a paleontologist, digging up dinosaur bones in Wyoming.

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Other Word Forms

Noun Inflected Forms

• paleontologists
  plural

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Etymology

Origin of paleontologist

paleontolog(y) ( def. ) + -ist ( def. )

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Explanation

A paleontologist is a scientist who studies fossils. If your basement is filled with fossils found while out on hikes, then you're an amateur paleontologist. Paleontology breaks down to the Greek for "ancient" (paleo), "being" (onto-), and "study" (-logy). A paleontologist tries to figure out how things were in ancient times by studying their remains in fossil traces. If you are obsessed with all things related to dinosaurs, becoming a paleontologist might make sense for you.

Example Sentences

See Examples For:

paleontologist paleontologists

"It is the earliest evidence of an aquatic lifestyle in mammals," says the paleontologist from the University of Bonn.

From Science Daily ● Oct. 13, 2026

Study co-author Alessandro Chiarenza, a paleontologist at University College London, said an internally regulated body temperature could have allowed tyrannosaurs to live in regions where cold-blooded reptiles struggled to survive.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 20, 2026

“It’s the most complete mastodon molar from our area, and the most spectacular mastodon molar that I’ve ever seen,” Wayne Thompson, a paleontologist and owner of the firm Pacific Paleontology, said in the news release.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 10, 2026

His portrayal of a paleontologist suddenly discovering that the creatures he’s studied in rock and bone have come to life is just masterful.

From Slate ● Jul. 13, 2026

Mantell was a lanky assemblage of shortcomings–he was vain, self-absorbed, priggish, neglectful of his family–but never was there a more devoted amateur paleontologist.

From "A Short History of Nearly Everything" by Bill Bryson

The advance could help geologists, paleontologists and archaeologists assign more reliable dates to events in Earth's past.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 30, 2026

Those features led some paleontologists to propose that zhelestids represented an unknown group of hoofed mammals.

From Science Daily ● Sep. 28, 2026

Museum paleontologists excavated some 70% of Thomas’s fossilized skeleton in the early 2000s, making it one of the most complete T. rex specimens ever found.

From Los Angeles Times ● Sep. 16, 2026

Tuesday's purchase by an anonymous buyer highlights a surging market for dinosaur bones -- a trend that has drawn criticism from some paleontologists over the specimens going into private hands.

From Barron's ● Jul. 14, 2026

The assumed shape of the Jupiter bird’s toe bone, as imagined by paleontologists, the caption read.

From "A Tangle of Knots" by Lisa Graff

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