Brigitte Senut (27 January 1954, Paris) is a French paleoprimatologist and

paleoanthropologist Paleoanthropology or paleo-anthropology is a branch of paleontology and biological anthropology, anthropology which seeks to understand the early development of anatomically modern humans, a process known as wikt:hominization, hominization, throug ...

and a professor at the

National Museum of Natural History The National Museum of Natural History (NMNH) 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. With 4.4 ...

, 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 as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure ge ...

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 Habilitation is the highest university degree, or the procedure by which it is achieved, in Germany, France, Italy, Poland and some other European and non-English-speaking countries. The candidate fulfills a university's set criteria of excelle ...

degree to direct research at the

National Museum of Natural History, France The French National Museum of Natural History ( ; abbr. MNHN) is the national natural history museum of France and a of higher education part of Sorbonne University. The main museum, with four galleries, is located in Paris, France, within the ...

, under the direction of

anthropologist An anthropologist is a scientist engaged in the practice of anthropology. Anthropologists study aspects of humans within past and present societies. Social anthropology, cultural anthropology and philosophical anthropology study the norms, values ...

Yves Coppens Yves Coppens (9 August 1934 – 22 June 2022) was a French anthropologist and co-discoverer of "Lucy". A graduate from the University of Rennes and the Sorbonne, he studied ancient hominids and had multiple published works on this topic, and a ...

, 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 participated in research on

Lucy Lucy is an English language, English feminine given name derived from the Latin masculine given name Lucius with the meaning ''as of light'' (''born at dawn or daylight'', maybe also ''shiny'', or ''of light complexion''). Alternative spellings ar ...

with the French contingent studying it. Additionally, her research related to the fossils from the

African Great Lakes The African Great Lakes (; ) are a series of lakes constituting the part of the Rift Valley lakes in and around the East African Rift. The series includes Lake Victoria, the second-largest freshwater lake in the world by area; Lake Tangan ...

and

Ethiopia Ethiopia, officially the Federal Democratic Republic of Ethiopia, is a landlocked country located in the Horn of Africa region of East Africa. It shares borders with Eritrea to the north, Djibouti to the northeast, Somalia to the east, Ken ...

has allowed her to push back the date of hominid presence in this

subregion A subregion is a part of a larger geographical region or continent. Cardinal directions are commonly used to define subregions. There are many criteria for creating systems of subregions; this article is focusing on the United Nations geoschem ...

. She collaborated with Christine Tardieu on these research projects. 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 (born 1943) is a lecturer in the Chair of Paleoanthropology and Prehistory at the Collège de France

, 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'' 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 ''Proconsul major'', an extinct primate of the genus ''Proconsul'', was possibly the ancestor of ''Afropithecus'' and showed hominid characteristics. It occurred during the early Miocene and was roughly, the size of a gorilla. The species previo ...

''. 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 The National Order of the Legion of Honour ( ), formerly the Imperial Order of the Legion of Honour (), is the highest and most prestigious French national order of merit, both military and civil. Currently consisting of five classes, it was ...

(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 ...

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