Paleoecologists

Part of speech: noun

Definitions

1. Scientists who investigate how ancient plants, animals and environments interacted, using fossils and geological evidence to reconstruct past ecosystems
2. Researchers who reconstruct the living communities and climates of prehistoric eras by examining remains preserved in rock and sediment
3. Specialists in the ecology of distant geological periods who piece together how long-extinct life related to its surroundings

Etymology: Paleoecologists are scientists who reconstruct how ecosystems looked and functioned in the distant past, working from clues such as fossils, pollen, sediment layers and tree rings. The name is simply a compound: "paleo-", from Greek "palaios" meaning "old" or "ancient", attached to "ecologist", a scientist who studies organisms in relation to their environment. Together they describe someone who studies ecology in the deep past. The plural is formed by adding "-s" to "paleoecologist", so it refers to more than one such researcher. The root "ecologist" itself builds on "ecology", which combines Greek "oikos", meaning "house" or "dwelling", with the suffix "-logy" for the study of something. Ecology therefore literally means the study of the household of nature, the way living things keep house together with their surroundings.