Brigitte Senut (27 January 1954, Paris) is a French
paleoprimatologist and
paleoanthropologist and a professor at the
National Museum of Natural History
The National Museum of Natural History is a natural history museum administered by the Smithsonian Institution, located on the National Mall in Washington, D.C., United States. It has free admission and is open 364 days a year. In 2021, with 7 ...
, Paris. She is a specialist in the evolution of great apes and humans.
Life and work
Senut is a naturalist and geologist by training and began studying human
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 ...
and paleoprimatology at a young age. She earned her master's degree in geology at the
Pierre-et-Marie-Curie University of Paris in 1975, and specialized in vertebrate and human paleontology, obtaining a doctorate (DEA) in 1976 and defended her doctoral dissertation in 1978. She was interested in the function-phylogeny link in her thesis entitled ''Contribution à l'étude de l'humérus et de ses articulations chez les Hominidés du Plio-Pléistocène'' (''Contribution to the study of the humerus and its joints in Plio-Pleistocene Hominids'').
In 1987, Senut obtained her post doctoral
habilitation degree to direct research at the
National Museum of Natural History, France
The French National Museum of Natural History, known in French as the ' (abbreviation MNHN), is the national natural history museum of France and a ' of higher education part of Sorbonne Universities. The main museum, with four galleries, is loc ...
, under the direction of
anthropologist Yves Coppens
Yves Coppens (9 August 1934 – 22 June 2022) was a French anthropologist. A graduate from the University of Rennes and Sorbonne, he studied ancient hominids and had multiple published works on this topic, and also produced a film. In October ...
, with her thesis entitled ''Le coude des primates hominoïdes: aspects morphologiques, fonctionnels, taxonomiques et évolutifs'' (The elbow of hominoid primates: morphological, functional, taxonomic and evolutionary aspects).
Senut has been a professor in the Department of Earth History at the National Museum of Natural History, France, since 1986.
Excavations
Senut has initiated and led several international cooperation projects in Africa, including sites in Uganda, Kenya, Namibia, South Africa, Angola and Botswana.
She joined forces with the British researcher
Martin Pickford
Martin Pickford was lecturer in the Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France and honorary affiliate at the Département Histoire de la Terre in the Muséum national d'Histoire. In 2001, Martin Pickford together wi ...
, who became her life partner and with whom she has made several major discoveries. She participated in many discoveries of fossil great apes in Africa: ''
Otavipithecus
''Otavipithecus namibiensis'' is an extinct species of ape from the Miocene of Namibia. The fossils were discovered at the Berg Aukas mines in the foothills of the Otavi mountains, hence the generic name. The species was described in 1992 by G ...
'' in Namibia (12 to 13 million years ago (Mya)), ''
Ugandapithecus
''Ugandapithecus'' is a disputed extinct genus of hominoid primates that existed from 22 to 14 million years ago during the Miocene epoch. Fossil remains are present in Eastern Africa including Kenya and Uganda. Four species have been classified ...
'' and ''Kogolepithecus'' in Uganda (20 Mya), the oldest great ape found in South Africa (18 Mya), and in 2011 an exceptionally well preserved skull of ''
Proconsul major''.
In 2000, Senut, Pickford and their team discovered in Kenya 12 fossil fragments of a new species of
''Hominina'', which they named in 2001 ''Orrorin tugenensis''. The fossils were found in three Kenyan localities in the
Tugen Hills
The Tugen Hills (also known as ''Saimo'') are a series of hills in Baringo County, Kenya. They are located in the central-western portion of Kenya.
The Tugen Hills represent one of the few areas in Africa preserving a succession of deposits from ...
(Baringo district), in the Lukeino formation. They are dated to about 5.9 Mya and thus represent the second oldest hominina known to date, after
''Sahelanthropus tchadensis''.
She also helped establish a local community museum at Kipsaraman, Kenya.
Awards
* Broca Medal from the Paris Anthropology Society, 1988.
* Winner of the
Nathalie Demassieux Prize (Science) 1988 from the Chancellery of the Universities of Paris.
* CNRS silver medal, 2000
* Knight in the
National Order of Merit (Research) 2002
* Knight in the National Order of the
Legion of Honor (category Research, 2008).
*
Irène-Joliot-Curie prize for woman scientist of the year in 2008.
* Cino Del Duca scientific prize In 2019 from the Simone and
Cino Del Duca
Cino Del Duca (25 July 1899 – 24 May 1967) was an Italian-born businessman film producer and philanthropist who moved to France in 1923 where he made a fortune in the French publishing business.
Biography
Cino Del Duca Born in Montedinove in ...
Foundation, becoming the third woman to receive it.
Selected publications
Senut has authored more than 240 original scientific publications.
* Yves Coppens, Brigitte Senut, ''Origins of bipedalism in hominids'', CNRS editions, September 1998
* Herbert Thomas, Brigitte Senut, ''Primates, ancestors of man'', Éditions Artcom, 1999
* Michel Devillers, Brigitte Senut, ''And the monkey stood up... African adventures of a paleontologist'', Albin Michel, October 2008
* Brigitte Senut, ''The Great Apes,'' Vuibert, February 2009
* Anna Alter, Brigitte Senut, ''Who are our ancestors? Great ape, man, what we don't know yet...'', publisher Le Pommier, June 2015
Filmography
* ''Brigitte Senut, the Fossil Hunting Lady'', documentary film by Philippe Ayme, 2012, with Senut playing herself.
Abbreviation (zoology)
The abbreviation Senut is used to indicate Brigitte Senut as an authority on description and taxonomy in zoology.
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Senut, Brigitte
1954 births
Living people
20th-century French scientists
21st-century French scientists
20th-century French archaeologists
20th-century French historians
21st-century French historians
Pierre and Marie Curie University alumni
French women archaeologists
French women historians