A person who studies fossils or collects them; alternatively, someone with rigid, unchanging ideas.
From fossil + -ist (Greek -istes 'one who practices'). The -ist suffix denotes a person who specializes in or practices something.
In the 1700s and 1800s, 'fossilists' were the celebrities of science—people like Mary Anning discovered the first ichthyosaur and plesiosaur as a self-taught girl fossil hunter in England, revolutionizing what we knew about ancient life!
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