Definition of "fossilist"

In a work lately published by an eminent fossilist, I have met with an opinion, that all the spoils of terrestrial and submarine productions which we find buried in the strata in this country over the chalk, have been transported from distant climates, and have been deposited in a tumultuous manner by some great convulsion that blended them in one common grave.

1814, Thomas Webster, Transactions of the Geological Society, 1st series, vol. 2: On the Strata lying over the Chalk