Frances Watts, age 14, West Columbia  for her question.­

What is an icthyologist?

Lets play detective with this big word, The first half of it looks as strange as a dinosaur.  But the second half looks familiar. It rimes with biologist and zoologist. Could there be a relationship? Indeed there could be in more ways than one. Most words ending with logy and logist are related;, These word endings are coined from the Greek word logos.

In its most simple sense, logos means word. However, its meaning was stretched to cover certain ways in which words are used. It may mean a discussion, an order, a statement or even a theory, For words are used to express all these things,

Words are also used to express knowledge, The word ending logy means the study of this or that branch of knowledge. The ending logist means a  student or expert in a certain‑branch of learning; An icthyologist,‑then, is an expert, but an expert in what?

This is spelled out in the first part of the word, though in a rather back handed way. It, too, is coined from a Greek word. Any clues? That’s right. Remember the icthyosaurus who crept into a previous column? He was a fish relative of the dinosaurs. The icthyo comes from an old word for fish. An icthyologist is a student or expert in icthyology. No wonder we were reminded of biology and zoology. Icthyology, the study of fishes, is a wide branch of learning spreading over into these and other studies.

An icthyologist begins his training in biology. He must understand the make‑up and body tissues of living animals. He studies his fish bit by bit, working from the simple to the more complex. A bony herring is one of the most highly developed of fish. The student will study such fish only after he has mastered the simple backboneless fish, the fish with cartilage and those with cartilage and bone. Meantime he is learning to tell one fish from another and one group of fish from another. He also learns the favorite food, the haunts and habits of various fish.

All this is groundwork for the icthyologist. He then goes on to study a smaller area of the vast fish world in greater detail. He may become an expert in a special fish or group of fish.  His work now leads him to discover new facts for himself. He puts the new material into words and adds it to the science of icthyology.

Some icthyologists are experts in tropical fish. They develop some of the handsome hybrids in our aquariums. Others study trout or salmon and help keep the streams stocked for the fishermen. Some icthyologists are interested in how fishes develop, They study the fossil bones of ancient fish. These icthyologists are also paleontologists ‑ experts in the study of living things of long ago.