Re: the opposite of paedomorphosis?

[David Marjanovic <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

> Don't know why the <ae> is often retained in that word (though a web
> search for "pedomorphosis" also turns up hits).  You never see
> "paediatrician" here, though it's based on the same Greek root.

We're talking about English orthography here, so stop asking for a reason! 
:-)

> Of course, sometimes it's kind of a relief to be able to drop some of
> those "silent" vowels:  do Brits work on ancient environments really
> find themselves studying "palaeooecology"?

Probably not, because I've never seen "oecology" (...I think). In German, 
however, you can find "Paläoökologie", even though "Palökologie" is the most 
common version. The correct (and rarest) version, I've read, is 
"Paläökologie" because the -o- of palaio- is dropped when a vowel follows it 
(...or something... I don't know Greek, only Latin). This would give 
"palaeoecology" (not "palaeo-ecology", but "palae-oecology") or 
"palaeecology" or "paleecology" in English. Hm. :-S