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Nancy Simmons

Nancy Simmons, Berkley PHD graduate who is the Curator-in-Charge of the American Museum of Natural History’s mammalogy collection, works with data gained from museum specimens and high-resolution CT scans, combining these with DNA sequence data generated by collaborators to build and test phylogenetic and evolutionary hypotheses. She conducts fieldwork yearly in the Neotropics, and has lately been expanding her work into Southeast Asia. In addition to this she is a professor at Richard Gilder Graduate School.
Simmons reported last August that the total number of living bat species had risen from 1,232 to 1,293 - meaning an additional 61 species were discovered between 2010 and 2013. One of the main factors behind the increase is that more researchers are using new technologies like DNA analyses to reveal hidden diversities among seemingly similar bats.

This year she released a statement quoted by Bat Conservation International saying “…some genuinely new bats – never before seen – are captured and identified every year … often made in parts of the world where there has been little previous work or where past surveys only began to scratch the surface. Still other new species are discovered in museum drawers where close examinations and comparisons show that specimens collected years ago are not what they were originally thought to be. All of these kinds of discovery are part of the picture that is showing bats to be more diverse than we thought.”

SOURCES
https://www.facebook.com/photo.php?fbid=10152101160649519&set=a.10150675812889519.412015.144437204518&type=1&theater
http://www.amnh.org/our-research/staff-directory/nancy-b.-simmons

READ MORE
http://www.amnh.org/our-research/vertebrate-zoology/mammalogy/research-activities/nancy-b.-simmons-research-group

IMAGE SOURCE
http://teacher.scholastic.com/activities/explorations/authform_nancy.asp

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