Nancy B. Simmons

Scientific Staff Directory Search

Curator-in-Charge, Department of Mammalogy, Division of Vertebrate Zoology
Professor, Richard Gilder Graduate School

Email:: simmonsSPAMFILTER@amnh.org
Phone:: 212-769-5483

Download Curriculum Vitae

Press & Special Programs

Orange Is The New Black—For Bats

New Bat Species With Orangutan Hue Discovered in West Africa

A new bat was discovered in Africa — and it’s orange and black like Halloween

How natural history museums should play a bigger role in finding the sources of wildlife pathogens

Fieldwork on Bats in Amazonian Peru

The Science of Speciation – Molecular Adaptation in Vampire Bats

Morpholution: An Authentic Youth Science Program

Seeing Inside Bats - AMNH SciCafe

The Science of Bats

Education

University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1989
University of California, Berkeley, Ph.C., 1985
Pomona College, B.A., 1981

Research Interests

Dr. Simmons’ research focuses on morphology, systematics, ecology, and evolution of bats. She works with both living and fossil species, and is interested in phylogenetic relationships, biogeography, evolution of ecological diversity, and community structure of Neotropical bat faunas. A morphologist by training, her students and collaborators have pulled her into many new research areas in recent years including genome/pheonome connections, bat ectoparasites and microbiomes, disease dynamics, and conservation biology. One of the primary organizers of the new GBatNet (Global Union of Bat Diversity Networks), she is also Chair of the Global Bat Taxonomy Working Group of the IUCN Bat Specialist Group, and a member of the Board of Directors of Bat Conservation International. She is also on the Steering Committee for SEABCRU (Southeast Asian Bat Conservation Research Union) as well as the Steering Committee for Taxonomy and Collections for the Bat 1K Project to sequence genomes of all the world’s bats.

Publications

(Selected)

Simmons, N. B., J. Flanders, E. M. Bakwo Fils, G. Parker, J. D. Suter, S. Bamba, M. Douno, M. Kobele Keita, A. E. Morales, and W. F. Frick. 2021. A new dichromatic species of Myotis (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from the Nimba Mountains, Guinea. American Museum Novitates 3963: 1-37. http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/7249

Curtis, A., T. D. Smith, K. P. Bhatnagar, A. Brown, and N. B. Simmons. 2020. Maxilloturbinal aids in nasophonation in horseshoe bats (Chiroptera: Rhinolophidae). Anatomical Record 303: 110 128. https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ar.23999

Oelbaum, P. J., M. B. Fenton, N. B. Simmons, and H. G. Broders. 2019. Community structure of a Neotropical bat fauna revealed using stable isotope analysis: Not all species fit neatly in predicted guilds. Biotropica 51: 719-730. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/btp.12700

Morgan, G. S., N. J. Czaplewski, and N. B. Simmons. 2019. A new mormoopid bat from the Oligocene (Whitneyan and Early Arikareean) of Florida, and phylogenetic relationships of the major clades of Mormoopidae (Mammalia: Chiroptera). Bulletin of the American Museum of Natural History. 434: 1-141. http://digitallibrary.amnh.org/handle/2246/6944

Ingala, M. R., D. J. Becker, J. B. Holm, K. Kristiansen, and N. B. Simmons. 2019. Habitat fragmentation is associated with dietary and microbiome shifts in vampire bats (Desmodus rotundus). Ecology and Evolution. 9: 6508-6523 https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/pdf/10.1002/ece3.5228

Herrera, J. P., N. Duncan, E. Clare, B. Fenton, and N. B. Simmons. 2018. Disassembly of fragmented bat communities in Orange Walk District, Belize. Acta Chiropteralogica 20: 147—159. http://www.bioone.org/doi/10.3161/15081109ACC2018.20.1.011

Becker, D. J., M. C. Chumchal, H. G. Broders, J. M. Korstian, E. L. Clare, T. R. Ra N. B. Simmons, and M. B. Fenton. 2018. Mercury bioaccumulation in bats reflects dietary connectivity to aquatic food webs. Environmental Pollution 233: 1076-1085. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.envpol.2017.10.010

Voss, R. S., D. W. Fleck, R. E. Strauss, P. M. Velazco, and N. B. Simmons. 2016. Roosting ecology of Amazonian bats: evidence for guild structure in hyperdiverse mammalian communities. American Museum Novitates 3870: 1-43.http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1206/3870.1

Cirranello, A., N. B. Simmons, S. Solari, and R. J. Baker. 2016. Morphological diagnoses of higher-level phyllostomid taxa (Chiroptera: Phyllostomidae). Acta Chiropteralogica 18: 39-71. http://www.bioone.org/doi/full/10.3161/15081109ACC2016.18.1.002

Simmons, N. B., E. R. Seiffert, and G.F. Gunnell. 2016. A new family of large omnivorous bats (Mammalia, Chiroptera) from the Late Eocene of the Fayum Depression, Egypt, with comments on use of the name “Eochiroptera”. American Museum Novitates 3857: 1-43. http://www.bioone.org/doi/pdf/10.1206/3857.1

Teaching Experience

Faculty Appointments

Professor, Richard Guilder Graduate School, American Museum of Natural History, 2008- present
Adjunct Associate Professor, Ph.D. Program in Biology, CUNY Graduate School, 1993-present
Adjunct Faculty, Graduate Program in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, Columbia University, 1997-present

Courses Taught

Mammalogy
Machine Learning Algorithms for Ecological Data Sets
Field and Lab Techniques for Identification of Bats and Ectoparasites

Graduate Advisees

(Last 5 Years)

Maddy Foote, AMNH RGGS, 2019-2020
Melissa Ingala, AMNH RGGS, 2016-2020
Kelly Speer, AMNH RGGS, 2015-2019
Zachary Calamari, AMNH RGGS, 2013-2017

Graduate Committees