paleozoology

Note: The French word was introduced by the zoologist Henri-Marie Ducrotay de Blainville (1777-1850), as a heading for a summary of work done on fossils in the year 1817 ("Résumé des principaux travaux dans les différents sciences physiques publiés pendant l'année 1817"), in Journal de physique, de chimie, d'histoire naturelle et des arts, tome 86 (janvier 1818), p. 71. Blainville states in a footnote to the heading that "c'est le nom [i.e., palaezoologie] que j'ai cru devoir donner a la partie de la science qui traite des fossiles" ("this is the name that I thought I must give to the branch of science that deals with fossils"). In subsequent volumes he replaced palaeozoologie with palaeosomiologie and then palaeontologie—see note at paleontology.