Honestly, the observation seems novel enough to me that the term discovery is appropriate. We say that Darwin discovered evolution and Newton discovered gravity

Honestly, the observation seems novel enough to me that the term discovery is appropriate. We say that Darwin discovered evolution and Newton discovered gravity. Both these phenomenon were previously observed but it took a genius to consider what they were in essence. Same with this work - look at the photographs of the mollusk, river, and onion. I would have never connected those dots.