Anna K. Behrensmeyer is a paleontologist and geologist who is recognized as a pioneer in the field of taphonomy and the study of land environments and faunas through geological time, with a particular focus on the paleoecology of human evolution in Africa. Behrensmeyer is originally from Quincy, Illinois. She earned her undergraduate degree in geology from Washington University, St. Louis, and her doctorate in vertebrate paleontology and sedimentology from the Department of Geological Sciences, Harvard University. After post-doctoral positions at UC Berkeley and Yale University and an interval of teaching at UC Santa Cruz, in 1981 she became a Research Curator in Paleobiology at the National Museum of Natural History, Smithsonian Institution. She has served as Acting Associate Director for Science at NMNH from 1993-96, co-Director of the Evolution of Terrestrial Ecosystems (ETE) Program since 1988, and Deep Time Initiative Lead Scientist since 2014. She was selected as one of the 50 most important women scientists by Discover Magazine in 2002. Recent awards include the 2016 R.C Moore Medal (SEPM), the 2018 Romer-Simpson Medal (Society of Vertebrate Paleontology), the 2018 Paleontological Society Medal, and the 2019 G.K. Warren Prize (National Academy of Sciences). She is a member of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the National Academy of Sciences. She lives in Arlington, VA and is married to William Keyser; they have two daughters, Kristina and Sarah.