Lauren Sallan is currently compiling and analyzing the vast fossil record of fishes. She's using this "deeptime database" to investigate ecological interactions, biodiversity and the interactions of habitats and evolutionary pathways. She's is working to uncover patterns in mass extinction events and examining the ways that environmental conditions affect ecosystem structures.

Sallan became a TED Fellow in 2017. Her research has been published in Science, PNAS and Current Biology. It has also been featured in the New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, Forbes, the New Scientist, the Discovery Channel as well as The Ends of the World by Peter Brannen.