Lauren Sallan, PhD
Paleobiology, Macroevolution, and the Origins of Vertebrate and Marine Life
Unit Head & Assistant Professor
Macroevolution Unit
Okinawa Institute of Science and Technology Graduate University (OIST)
TED Senior Fellow
Research Summary
My research integrates discoveries and data from multiple fields to determine the factors that have shaped marine biodiversity on scales outside human observation (macroevolution).
My lab at OIST, the Macroevolution Unit, seeks to determine the origins of modern biodiversity and ecosystems (marine and freshwater), and understand how species respond to big challenges - living and environmental, gradual and sudden, local and global.
This work involves analyses of immense databases for fishes (half of vertebrate diversity) and early vertebrates (half of vertebrate history), as well as detailed, species-level surveys of living and fossil ecosystems in order to tease apart the origins of the life as we know it.
Painting of a modern teleost alongside a 340 million year old relative (Aetheretmon), by John Megahan.
Research Interests
Macroevolution
Macroecology
Ichthyology
Early Vertebrates
Paleobiology
Mass Extinction
Global Change
Phylogenetics
Biomechanics
Evo-Devo
A 310 Million Year Old river delta by John Meghan
A 340 Million Year Old "Reef" by Bob Nicholls
Watch my TED Talk on the evolution of life and the future of paleontology
Watch my TED Talk on what animals survive a mass extinction and thrive afterwards
Listen to FutureProof about our research in mass extinction.
Listen to Palaeocast about our research on early vertebrate macroevolution and paleobiology.
Watch our TED-Ed Video about why fishes are fish shaped.
