I'm not sure if this is what Dave meant, but IMO it's not that the term
"paleoartist" is "restrictive", as Ed suggests, it's just that it's a
stupid word. What, exactly, does "paleoartist" mean? Translated literally,
it means "ancient artist". This is a nonsense phrase, and I can't say I
ever really cared for it. I prefer the descriptive "paleolife artist"
(meaning "ancient life artist"), a derivation of "wildlife artist", a term
long in use to describe that particular branch of illustration/sculpture.
To suggest that "paleoartist" literally translates as "ancient artist"
is incorrect. According to Webster's "paleo" is "a combining form
. . . used widely to form compounds, as below, meaning 'involving or dealing
with (specified) forms, conditions, phenomena, fossils, etc. of remote,
esp. geologic, eras:'" paleoanthropology, paleobotany,
paleobiology . . . Webster's list goes on to include a total of ten
examples, and we all know that they could have listed more. The term
"paleoart" certainly fits as comfortably as say "paleobiology," and the
term "paleoartist" is therefore as legitimate as "paleobiologist," which
I don't believe any of us would mistake for an ancient biologist and more
than we would mistake "paleobiology" for ancient biology.