A scientist or expert who studies fauna or the animals of a particular region or era.
From 'fauna' plus '-ist' suffix (meaning 'one who does or specializes in'). The '-ist' suffix is used to create nouns for specialists and practitioners in various fields. It comes from Latin '-ista'.
A faunist is kind of like a detective of animal worlds! They might specialize in, say, Mesozoic faunas or tropical rainforest faunas. It's a term that shows how scientific communities create specialized vocabulary for their experts.
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