Skip to main content

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

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

QUOTE: Marie M. Daly

"Courage is like — it’s a habitus, a habit, a virtue: you get it by courageous acts. It’s like you learn to swim by swimming. You learn courage by couraging." Marie M. Daly (1921–2003), Biochemist & the first African American woman in the US to earn a Ph.D. in chemistry. #ScienceWomen #WLeadership #ewls
2 comments
Read more

800 Facebook Likes!

Yippee! EWLS fans are awesome! Thank you all so much for sharing and liking our FB page. Since last February when we announced 700 likes, we have gained a blog and our annual event is ramping up for some major festivities. Please check out our Extraordinary Women Cavers (EWC's) who will be featured in this year's publication and sign up so that you can get in on these limited caving trips to gated and protected caves in the Magic Valley area of Idaho! Have a great day everyone and thank you for supporting women cavers! LINKS Webpage: www.ewls.org EWC's: www.ewls.org/past-editions.html Annual Event: www.ewls.org/all-grrs-cave-trip.html Annual Event FB page: www.facebook.com/events/127091664128055
18 comments
Read more

Sioux Legend of the Old Woman in the Cave

According to Sioux legend, as told by Chief Lost Feather, there is a secret and mysterious cave that is located on the West Mountain (near Hot Springs, Arkansas).  There's an old woman and a dog that have been living in this cave for many generations. The old woman never grows any older.  The dog never ages, either.  They both stay exactly the same, and they have since anybody can remember. The old woman spends her days weaving a rug.  She is using pine needles that she has collected in the nearby pine forest.  The old woman has been weaving now for many centuries, and yet the rug never gets any bigger. The dog watches his mistress weave through narrow slits in his eyes as he appears to just nap in the corner. Occasionally the old woman puts the rug down and leaves it while she goes to stir the pot of soup that she has cooking on a fire at the mouth of the cave.  The soup has probably been cooking for several centuries, as well.  The minute the old w...
Post a Comment
Read more