Dr. Simmons specializes in the morphology and evolutionary biology of bats (Chiroptera). Together with several collaborators, Dr. Simmons is developing a data set of morphological characters scored in species representing all major clades of bats. These data include new information gained from high-resolution CT scans of rare bats. These data are being combined with DNA sequence data to develop a robust higher-level phylogeny for Chiroptera. Together with collaborators, she is doing an in-depth study of the evolution of megabats – flying foxes and their relatives – using both molecular and morphological data. Dr. Simmons is also working with an expert on echolocation behavior to develop a method for coding features of echolocation calls for phylogenetic analysis. They hope to use these characters to help better resolve evolutionary relationships among microchiropteran bats, and to use phylogenies to help form hypotheses about how echolocation has evolved in different lineages.