Senut is a naturalist and geologist by training and began studying human paleontology and paleoprimatology at a young age.

[1] In 1987, Senut obtained her post doctoral habilitation degree to direct research at the National Museum of Natural History, France, under the direction of anthropologist Yves Coppens, 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).

[2] Additionally, her research related to the fossils from the African Great Lakes and Ethiopia has allowed her to push back the date of hominid presence in this subregion.

[1][5] 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 (Baringo district), in the Lukeino formation.