Neontology - The study of presently alive or recently extinct organisms.

The word 'neontology' appeared in a rag-week magazine recently (of all places) and, not immediately finding it in a dictionary, I assumed it had been invented as a spoof speciality. But it occurred to me to try OneLook today and it quoted The Biological Sciences Dictionary; the only source, in fact, that it gave.

I suppose it is the antonym of palaeontology and I am surprised not to have met it before.

Edit: I have since found the word in The Concise Oxford - so not so obscure after all!