Nancy B. Simmons is an American

zoologist Zoology ()The pronunciation of zoology as is usually regarded as nonstandard, though it is not uncommon. is the branch of biology that studies the Animal, animal kingdom, including the anatomy, structure, embryology, evolution, Biological clas ...

mammalogist In zoology, mammalogy is the study of mammals – a class of vertebrates with characteristics such as homeothermic metabolism, fur, four-chambered hearts, and complex nervous system In biology, the nervous system is the highly complex part o ...

, professor, and author. Specializing in

bats Bats are mammals of the order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in flight than most bi ...

, Simmons has conducted extensive research on the

morphology Morphology, from the Greek and meaning "study of shape", may refer to: Disciplines * Morphology (archaeology), study of the shapes or forms of artifacts * Morphology (astronomy), study of the shape of astronomical objects such as nebulae, galaxies ...

and evolutionary history of numerous bat species. She is also the curator-in-charge of the Department of Mammalogy at the

American Museum of Natural History The American Museum of Natural History (abbreviated as AMNH) is a natural history museum on the Upper West Side of Manhattan in New York City. In Theodore Roosevelt Park, across the street from Central Park, the museum complex comprises 26 inter ...

and a professor at the Richard Gilder Graduate School.

Education

Simmons graduated cum laude from

Pomona College Pomona College ( ) is a private liberal arts college in Claremont, California. It was established in 1887 by a group of Congregationalists who wanted to recreate a "college of the New England type" in Southern California. In 1925, it became ...

in 1981. She then earned her Ph.D. from the

University of California, Berkeley The University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley, Berkeley, Cal, or California) is a public land-grant research university in Berkeley, California. Established in 1868 as the University of California, it is the state's first land-grant u ...

in 1989.

Teaching

Simmons began working as a teaching assistant for the University of California, Berkeley in 1986. She went on to become an instructor of

paleontology Paleontology (), also spelled palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of life that existed prior to, and sometimes including, the start of the Holocene epoch (roughly 11,700 years before present). It includes the study of fossi ...

in 1987 and a zoology lecturer in 1988.

American Museum of Natural History

In addition to research, Simmons works closely with the

(AMNH). Ever since she began as a Kalbfleisch/Hoffman Postdoctoral Research Fellow at the AMNH in 1989, Simmons has conducted research for the museum as a faculty member. She is currently the Curator-in-Charge, Department of Mammalogy, Division of Vertebrate Zoology. Simmons is also a professor at the Richard Gilder Graduate School, a Ph.D. program in

comparative biology Comparative biology uses natural variation and disparity to understand the patterns of life at all levels—from genes to communities—and the critical role of organisms in ecosystems. Comparative biology is a cross-lineage approach to understan ...

offered by the American Museum of Natural History.

Research

Simmons' research is primarily focused on the

phylogeny A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

of bats. Using both morphological data and DNA sequence data, Simmons has conducted numerous studies that shed light on the relationships not only between different bat species, but between the Chiroptera clade and other clades. Using living and fossilized specimen, she studies bat behavior, diet, mechanisms of flight, and echolocation, applying her knowledge of phylogeny to explain certain phenomena. Her extensive field work in Central America, South America, and Southeast Asia has led her to discover several species of bats, such as

Sanborn's big-eared bat Sanborn's big-eared bat (''Micronycteris sanborni'') is a bat species found in Bolivia and Brazil Brazil ( pt, Brasil; ), officially the Federative Republic of Brazil (Portuguese: ), is the largest country in both South America and Latin ...

. In 2021, she was part of a team of scientists who discovered a new West African bat, ''

Myotis nimbaensis The Nimba myotis (''Myotis nimbaensis''), also known as the orange-furred bat or Nimba Mountain bat, is a species of bat in the family Vespertilionidae. The species is endemic to the Nimba Mountains in Guinea, West Africa. It was discovered in 20 ...

''. Her findings contribute to constructing large-scale

phylogenetic trees A phylogenetic tree (also phylogeny or evolutionary tree Felsenstein J. (2004). ''Inferring Phylogenies'' Sinauer Associates: Sunderland, MA.) is a branching diagram or a tree showing the evolutionary relationships among various biological spec ...

. Simmons and her team have submitted numerous evolutionary data surrounding bats and other animal clades to

Morphobank MorphoBank is a web application for collaborative evolutionary research, specifically phylogenetic systematics or cladistics, on the phenotype. Historically, scientists conducting research on phylogenetic systematics have worked individually or in ...

, an archive of evolutionary research. Furthermore, Simmons' team has also worked on the project Assembling the Tree of Life, where numerous organizations worked to piece together mammalian phylogeny through morphology.

MorphoBank

Simmons' evolutionary data has contributed to MorphoBank's database of morphological features, submitting hundreds of morphological characteristics of

Chiroptera Bats are mammals of the Order (biology), order Chiroptera.''cheir'', "hand" and πτερόν''pteron'', "wing". With their forelimbs adapted as wings, they are the only mammals capable of true and sustained flight. Bats are more agile in fli ...

species in order to conduct genetic testing to create an accurate phylogenetic tree. Simmons has also accessed MorphoBank as the curator for the American Museum of Natural History to engage in outreach work. In 2013, Simmons worked as part of the Morpholution program to help high school students engage in state-of-the-art digital analysis tools provided by MorphoBank to examine evolutionary relationships.

Publications

Simmons has been cited on 141 publications regarding bat phylogeny including: * Gunnell, G., N. B. Simmons, and E. R. Seiffert. 2014
Myzopodidae (Chiroptera) from the Late Paleogene of Egypt: Emended family diagnosis and biogeographic origins of Noctilionoidea.
PLoS ONE 9(2): e86712. * Velazco, P. M., R. Gregorin, R. S. Voss, and N. B. Simmons. 2014.
Extraordinary local diversity of Disk-winged bats (Thyropteridae: Thyroptera) in northeastern Peru, with the description of a new species and comments on roosting behavior.
American Museum Novitates 379: 1-28. * Olival, K. J., C. W. Dick, N. B. Simmons, J. C. Morales, D. Melnkck, K. Dittmar, S, L, Perkins, P. Daszak, and R. Desalle. 2013.
Lack of population genetic structure and host specificity in the bat fly, Cyclopodia horsfeldi, across species of Pteropus bats in Southeast Asia.
Parasites and Vectors, 6: 231 (18 pp). * Burleigh, G., K. Alphonse, A. J. Alverson, H. M. Bik, C. Blank, A. L. Cirranello, H. Cui, M. Daly, T. G. Dietterich, G. Gasparich, J. Irvine, M. Julius, S. Kaufman, E. Law, J. Liu, L. Moore, M. A. O'Leary, M. Passarotti, S. Ranade, N. B. Simmons, D. W. Stevenson, R. W. Thacker, E. C. Theriot, S. Todorovic, P. M. Velazco, R. L. Walls, J. M. Wolfe, and M. Yu

PLOS Currents Tree of Life, 2013.

Awards and recognition

In 1986, Simmons was named by the Society of Vertebrate Paleontology as an honorable mention for the Romer Prize, and then was awarded the Romer Prize in 1988. In 1989, Simmons was awarded with the Outstanding Graduate Student Instructor Award by the University of California. In 2008, Simmons was awarded the Gerrit S. Miller Award from the North American Society for Bat Research.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Simmons, Nancy Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Pomona College alumni University of California, Berkeley alumni American mammalogists 21st-century American zoologists Women mammalogists American women biologists People associated with the American Museum of Natural History 20th-century American zoologists 20th-century American women scientists 21st-century American women scientists