What does paleoanthropologist mean?

An expert who studies the development and culture of the early hominids.

Is the combination and a sub-discipline of paleontology and biological anthropology and is the study of the formation and the development of the specific characteristics of humans (hominization) and the reconstruction of evolutionary kinship lines in the family Hominidae by studying fossils, such as petrified skeletal remains, bone fragments, footprints and associated evidence, stone tools, artifacts, and settlement localities.[1][2] As technologies and methods advance, genetics plays an ever-increasing role in paleoanthropology, in particular to examine and compare DNA structure as a vital tool of research of the evolutionary kinship lines of related species and genera.

Hominoid taxonomies