Palaeoecologists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Scientists who investigate how living things and their environments interacted in past geological eras, using fossils and sediments as evidence
2. Researchers specializing in the reconstruction of ancient ecological communities and the climates they lived in, drawing on fossil records
3. Experts who study prehistoric plant and animal habitats to understand how ecosystems developed and changed over long spans of time

Etymology: "Palaeoecologists" is the plural of "palaeoecologist," a scientist who studies ancient ecosystems, reconstructing how plants, animals and their environments interacted in past ages. The word is a modern scientific compound, built from the combining form "palaeo-," which descends from the Ancient Greek "palaios," meaning "old" or "long ago," and "ecologist," someone who studies the relationships between living things and their surroundings. The Greek root "palai," meaning "long ago," appears in many English scientific terms, and "palaeo-" is the form it takes when joined to other words. Its appearance in the word is a clear sign of a technical coinage rather than an ancient one: the ancient Greeks had no concept of ecology as a science, and the term "ecology" itself was only introduced in the 19th century, so the compound is a much later creation assembled from older building blocks.