paleontologist

American  

[pey-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

Etymology

Origin of paleontologist

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

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

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

John Long, an Australian paleontologist who has also done extensive research in this field, called the study "quite outstanding."

From Barron's ● Jun. 18, 2026

Dr Nick Longrich, a paleontologist at the University of Bath, said his hunch was that they were mainly preying on ammonites.

From BBC ● Apr. 23, 2026

A Chapman University spokesman said it is “looking into” the emails of John “Jack” Horner, a paleontologist whose exchanges in the federal documents show he visited Epstein’s New Mexico ranch.

From Los Angeles Times ● Feb. 12, 2026

Richard Owen, the paleontologist who hovered over England’s natural historians like a patrician falcon, descended from the Royal College of Surgeons, to verify and catalog Darwin’s fossil skeletons.

From "The Gene" by Siddhartha Mukherjee

After closely examining the short-snouted animal, Yale paleontologists determined that it belonged to a previously unknown species.

From Science Daily ● Jul. 30, 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 higher prices helped reshape the market, encouraging more fossils to come up for sale while giving commercial paleontologists more resources to fund costly and yearslong digs.

From The Wall Street Journal ● Jul. 14, 2026

The study also contributes to an ongoing debate among paleontologists.

From Science Daily ● Jun. 22, 2026

But if there had been any paleontologists living 67 million years ago, they could not have predicted the dinosaurs’ imminent demise, because asteroids belong to a field of science otherwise remote from dinosaur biology.

From "Guns, Germs, and Steel: The Fates of Human Societies" by Jared M. Diamond