Samarsky-Bykhovets himself was not involved in the studies of samarskite and samarium. Other minerals include samarskite and fergusonite. Samarium was named for the mineral samarskite from which it was isolated. The chemical element samarium was first isolated from a specimen of samarskite in 1879. In 1880 he found gadolinium and samarium in the samarskite earths. This is a mineral similar to gadolinite, "uranotantalum" (now called "samarskite"). Samarskite occurs in rare earth bearing granite pegmatites with other rare minerals.