Keegan Melstrom is a paleontologist who combines analyses of modern groups in order to better understand the life and ecology of extinct animals. He earned his M.S. in Paleontology in 2016 from the University of Utah. There he studied the relationship between diet and tooth shape in living animals, in particular lizards and crocodylians. Using this information, he reconstructed the diet of extinct crocodylomorphs and found that many species were herbivores. Following this, Keegan received Ph.D. in Paleontology from the University of Utah in 2020 where he continued to study both living animals and extinct crocodylomorphs to better understand why crocodylians have survived and thrived since their appearance whereas so many of their relative have gone extinct.

 Keegan is currently a postdoctoral fellow at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County where he is studying how dinosaur teeth change through the Mesozoic and how this is associated with shifting climates and the appearance of new plant groups, such as flowering plants. Prior to graduate school, he received his B.S. in Geological Sciences from the University of Michigan and worked briefly at Ohio University as a fossil preparator.