Yale University graduate students and recent PhD graduates are invited to submit one first-authored paper concerning evolution and the fossil record by Thursday, March 6, 2025 to Sung Yun in the Director’s Office of the Yale Peabody Museum. So long as the paper explicitly addresses the fossil record, the range of questions addressed is open and could include contributions to the philosophy and history of science, theory and methods of phylogenetic inference, biogeography, paleobiology, paleoecology, taphonomy, biostratigraphy, biogeochemical insights into past life, divergence time estimation, biodiversity studies, developmental biology, functional morphology, or conservation biology. Submissions must be either published or in press in a refereed journal. Graduate students in residence in a department at Yale, or past graduates no more than five years after PhD, are eligible. Former winners are not eligible, but papers can be submitted more than once.
Dalton Meyer
Meyer, D., Brownstein, C. D., Jenkins, K. M., & Gauthier, J. A. (2023). A Morrison stem gekkotan reveals gecko evolution and Jurassic biogeography. Proceedings. Biological Sciences, 290(2011). https://doi.org/10.1098/rspb.2023.2284
This paper identifies a new species of pan-gekkotan (early gecko relative) from the Late Jurassic Morrison Formation (~150 million years ago) of Utah. This new species, Helioscopos dickersonae, illustrates the morphology of the earliest members of the gecko total group, while retaining a number of features that have been lost in modern geckos (including an opening for the parietal eye). The close relation of Helioscopos to contemporaneous fossil lizards from Germany illustrates a biogeographic pattern in small organisms that is reflected in the Late Jurassic dinosaurs of Europe and North America. Our estimation of the divergence times of both fossil and modern geckos also suggests that the endemic Australian geckos (the pygopodoids) originated in the mid-cretaceous, and may have dispersed into Australia through Antarctica before those continents broke apart.
| Year | Recipient Name | |
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| 2023 |
Silvina Slagter |
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| 2022 |
Sophie Westacott |
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2021 |
Jack Shaw |
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2020 |
Michael Hanson Elizabeth Spriggs Ross Anderson |
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2019 |
Jasmina Wiemann Christopher Whalen Daniel Smith-Paredes |
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2018 |
Matteo Fabbri Victoria McCoy |
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2017 |
Matt Davis Nicolas Mongiardino Koch |
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2016 |
Simon Darroch Sarah Federman Allison Hsaing |
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2015 |
Teresa Feo Alex Dornburg |
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2014 |
Rachel Racicot Stephen Chester |
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2013 |
Daniel Field |
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2012 |
Una Farrell |
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2011 |
Daniel Peppe April Dinwiddie |
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2010 |
Eric Sperling Jakob Vinther |
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2009 |
Faysal Bibi |
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2008 |
Jakob Vinther |
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2007 |
Walton Green Brian Moore Erik A. Sperling |
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2006 |
Julia A. Clarke Ian Miller |
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2005 |
Charles D. Bell |
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2004 |
Takanobu Tsuihiji |
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2003 |
James B. Rossie Krister T. Smith |
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2002 |
Dana Royer |
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2001 |
Julia Clarke |
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2000 |
Walter Joyce |
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1998 |
Daniel Brinkman |
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1992 |
Simon Conway Morris |
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1985 |
Christine Janis |
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1984 |
Karl J. Niklas |
Apply Now
For questions, please contact:
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Sung Yun
Senior Administrative Assistant,
Director's Office
+1 203 432 3752
sung.yun@yale.edu
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