James I. Kirkland

James Ian Kirkland (born August 24, 1954) is an American paleontologist and geologist. He has worked with dinosaur remains from the southwest United States of America and Mexico  and has been responsible for discovering new and important genera. He named (or worked with others in naming) Animantarx, Cedarpelta, Eohadrosaurus (nomen nudum, now named Eolambia), Jeyawati, Gastonia, Mymoorapelta, Nedcolbertia, Utahraptor, Zuniceratops, Europelta and Diabloceratops. At the same site where he found Gastonia and Utahraptor, Kirkland has also excavated fossils of the therizinosaur Falcarius.

Career
Born August 24, 1954, Weymouth, Massachusetts. High School, Marshfield High School, Marshfield, Massachusetts. 1972 B.S. Geological Sciences, New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology, Socorro, New Mexico. 1977 (Pres. Student Body, 1975-1976) M.S. Geology, Northern Arizona University, Flagstaff, Arizona. 1983 Ph. D. University of Colorado, Boulder, Colorado. 1990

He is adjunct Professor of Geology at Mesa State College, Grand Junction, Colorado, USA adjunct Associate Professor at University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah and a Research Associate of the Denver Museum of Natural History in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Colorado Boulevard, Denver, Colorado. For the past two decades he has been the Utah State Paleontologist for Utah Geological Survey. He issues permits for paleontological research on Utah state lands, keeps tabs on paleontological research and issues across the state, and promotes Utah’s paleontological resources for the public good.

Mesozoic
An expert on the Mesozoic, he has spent more than thirty years excavating fossils across the southwestern US and Mexico authoring and coauthoring more than 75 professional papers. The reconstruction of ancient marine and terrestrial environments, biostratigraphy, paleoecology, and mass extinctions are some of his interests. In addition to dinosaurs, he has described and named many fossil mollusks and fish.

Cretaceous
His researches in the middle Cretaceous of Utah indicate that the origins of Alaska and the first great Asian-North American faunal interchange occurred about 100 million years ago, which his numerous trips to China and Mongolia have substantiated.

Star Trek
Together with Diane Carey, he has written a Star Trek novel, First Frontier.