By Steven Scarpa, Associate Director of Marketing and Communications
Catie Fenstermaker ’25 was recognized with the Peabody Museum’s Greg Yamanaka Senior Essay Prize for her work analyzing nearly 4,000 prehistoric sea scorpion fossils that were collected in areas of New York and Ontario.
The Yamanaka Prize is given yearly to the best senior essay or thesis that makes use of the collections, archives, or resources of the Yale Peabody Museum. “Peabody collections were invaluable to my research,” Fenstermaker said.
Peabody curator of Invertebrate Paleontology Derek Briggs served as advisor for Fenstermaker’s essay, entitled “Examining Taphonomic Bias in Bertie Group Eurypterids.” She also received assistance from Jessica Utrup, museum assistant, and Erynn Johnson, collections manager in the division of Invertebrate Paleontology.
Fenstermaker conducted a large-scale systematic analysis of this collection of eurypterids – the formal name for sea scorpions. She recorded individual specimen body parts, how specimens were oriented to the seabed, characteristics of the slabs in which the fossils were found, and associated fauna, all to learn more about the marine environments in which these fossils formed.
What is preserved, and the way that it is preserved, can tell you a lot about the circumstances under which the fossils were formed. For example, Fenstermaker determined that many of these fossils seem to be exoskeletons that were molted as the animals grew. In some cases, they're laid down in an ordered way that suggests wind or wave action; in others they are disarticulated and mixed up, which implies rougher, more turbulent conditions. When lots of body parts were laid down at the same time, it may indicate a mass molting event, according to her research.
Her analysis provided the Peabody detailed data on each fossil slabs and its preserved specimens, which was then recorded in the Museum’s online archive. “This will greatly enhance the digital database for thousands of specimens in the Ciurca collection,” she said.
The Peabody, due to a long-term collaboration with Sam Ciurca, has the world’s largest collection of eurypterids, most from the Silurian Bertie Group of New York, US and Ontario, Canada.
The prize is awarded in memory of Gregory A. Yamanaka ’76, who was a senior research investigator for Bristol-Myers Squibb Virology Discovery, a long time Board member and supporter of the Yale Club of New Haven, and a dedicated O.C. Marsh Fellow at the Peabody. The award honors his love of Yale and his wide range of interests, which included science, natural history, and art.