Paleontography

Paleontography (from Ancient Greek παλαιός “old”, ὤν "being", γραφή "I write") is the formal description of fossil remains.[1] It is a subdiscipline of paleontology. The term has been in use in this sense for more than a hundred and fifty years, for example by the Palaeontographical Society. A paleontographer (or palaeontographer) is anyone who works in the field.

The term has more recently been adopted for one who uses medical imaging technology to scan fossils; mainly using CT scanning or any non-invasive scanning technology. The use of medical CT scanning technology allows scientists to use a non-invasive method to examine fossils or rock specimens without physically removing material, called preparation. Inventor/Software engineer Lee Schiel of Early Response Imaging [2] and Doctors Michael Smith and John Nesson of Arcadia Methodist Hospital were the first pioneers of this field in the late 1990s.