Dr. Ankel-Simons did her graduate studies in marine biology, marine ecology, and marine geology at the University of Copenhagen, the Marine Biological Laboratory at Elsinore, Denmark, and the University of Giessen, Germany. She was a member of the first research team to keep the folivore primate Alouatta palliata alive in captivity for a long term of several years at the Max Planck Institut for Brain Research, Giessen, Germany. Since 1996, she has been a Research Associate in the Division of Paleontology at the Duke University Primate Center. She has published three books and numerous journal papers.