James Ian Kirkland (born August 24, 1954) is an American

paleontologist Paleontology, also spelled as palaeontology or palæontology, is the scientific study of the life of the past, mainly but not exclusively through the study of fossils. Paleontologists use fossils as a means to classify organisms, measure geolo ...

and

geologist A geologist is a scientist who studies the structure, composition, and History of Earth, history of Earth. Geologists incorporate techniques from physics, chemistry, biology, mathematics, and geography to perform research in the Field research, ...

. He has worked with

dinosaur Dinosaurs are a diverse group of reptiles of the clade Dinosauria. They first appeared during the Triassic Geological period, period, between 243 and 233.23 million years ago (mya), although the exact origin and timing of the #Evolutio ...

remains from the southwest

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

of America and Mexico and has been responsible for discovering new and important

genera Genus (; : genera ) is a taxonomic rank above species and below family as used in the biological classification of living and fossil organisms as well as viruses. In binomial nomenclature, the genus name forms the first part of the binomial s ...

. He named (or worked with others in naming) ''

Animantarx ''Animantarx'' ( ; meaning 'living citadel') is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous, Early and Late Cretaceous of western North America. Like other nodosaurs, it would have been a slow-moving quadrupedal herbivo ...

'', ''

Cedarpelta ''Cedarpelta'' is an extinct genus of basal ankylosaurid dinosaur from Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous period (Cenomanian to lower Turonian stage, 98.2 to 93 Ma) in what is now the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation. ...

'', '' Eohadrosaurus'' (''

nomen nudum In Taxonomy (biology), taxonomy, a ''nomen nudum'' ('naked name'; plural ''nomina nuda'') is a designation which looks exactly like a scientific name of an organism, and may have originally been intended to be one, but it has not been published ...

'', now named ''

Eolambia ''Eolambia'' (meaning "dawn lambeosaurine") is a genus of herbivorous hadrosauroid dinosaur from the early Late Cretaceous of the United States. It contains a single species, ''E. caroljonesa'', named by paleontologist James Kirkland in 19 ...

''), '' Jeyawati'', '' Gastonia'', ''

Mymoorapelta ''Mymoorapelta'' (Meaning "Shield from the Mygatt-Moore Quarry" after a combination of the names of the discoverers of the Mygatt-Moore Quarry that fossils were originally collected from, and the Greek word πέλτα, meaning "shield") is a Nod ...

'', '' Nedcolbertia'', ''

Utahraptor ''Utahraptor'' (meaning "Utah's predator") is a genus of large dromaeosaurid (a group of feathered carnivorous theropods) dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period from around 139 to 135 million years ago in what is now the United ...

'', ''

Zuniceratops ''Zuniceratops'' ('Zuni-horned face') is a genus of ceratopsian dinosaurs that lived during the Turonian stage of the Late Cretaceous in what is now New Mexico, United States. Only a single species is known, ''Zuniceratops christopheri''. Histor ...

'', ''

Europelta ''Europelta'' (meaning “Europe’s shield”) is a monospecific genus of nodosauridae, nodosaurid dinosaur from Spain that lived during the Early Cretaceous (early Albian stage, ~113.0 Ma) in what is now the lower Escucha Formation of the Terue ...

'' and ''

Diabloceratops ''Diabloceratops'' ( ) is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 81.4-81 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Utah, in the United States. ''Diabloceratops'' wa ...

''. At the same site where he found '' Gastonia'' and ''

'', Kirkland has also excavated fossils of the therizinosaur ''

Falcarius ''Falcarius'' (meaning "sickle cutter") is a genus of primitive therizinosaur dinosaur that lived during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now North America. Its remains were first collected in the Cedar Mountain Formation in 1999, with subs ...

''.

Career

Born August 24, 1954, Weymouth,

Massachusetts Massachusetts ( ; ), officially the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, is a U.S. state, state in the New England region of the Northeastern United States. It borders the Atlantic Ocean and the Gulf of Maine to its east, Connecticut and Rhode ...

. 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 was an adjunct Professor of

Geology Geology (). is a branch of natural science concerned with the Earth and other astronomical objects, the rocks of which they are composed, and the processes by which they change over time. Modern geology significantly overlaps all other Earth ...

Mesa State College Colorado Mesa University (CMU or Mesa) is a public university in Grand Junction, Colorado, United States. Originally established in 1925 as Grand Junction Junior College, the school was renamed to Mesa College in 1940. The college began offerin ...

, Grand Junction,

Colorado Colorado is a U.S. state, state in the Western United States. It is one of the Mountain states, sharing the Four Corners region with Arizona, New Mexico, and Utah. It is also bordered by Wyoming to the north, Nebraska to the northeast, Kansas ...

, USA adjunct Associate Professor at

University of Utah The University of Utah (the U, U of U, or simply Utah) is a public university, public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It was established in 1850 as the University of Deseret (Book of Mormon), Deseret by the General A ...

Salt Lake City Salt Lake City, often shortened to Salt Lake or SLC, is the capital and most populous city of the U.S. state of Utah. It is the county seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in the state. The city is the core of the Salt Lake Ci ...

Utah Utah is a landlocked state in the Mountain states, Mountain West subregion of the Western United States. It is one of the Four Corners states, sharing a border with Arizona, Colorado, and New Mexico. It also borders Wyoming to the northea ...

and a Research Associate of the Denver Museum of Natural History in the

Denver Museum of Nature and Science The Denver Museum of Nature & Science is a municipal natural history and science museum in Denver, Colorado. It is a resource for informal science education in the Rocky Mountain region. A variety of exhibitions, programs, and activities help mus ...

, Colorado Boulevard,

Denver Denver ( ) is a List of municipalities in Colorado#Consolidated city and county, consolidated city and county, the List of capitals in the United States, capital and List of municipalities in Colorado, most populous city of the U.S. state of ...

, Colorado. For the past two decades he has been the Utah State Paleontologist for

Utah Geological Survey The Utah Geological Survey is based in Salt Lake City, Utah, United States. It also has an office in Cedar City, Utah. It is a division of the Utah Department of Natural Resources and is an applied scientific agency, which creates, interprets, ...

. 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 Diane L. Carey-Brodeur (born October 2, 1954) is an American fiction writer, publishing under the pen names Lydia Gregory, Diane Carey, and D. L. Carey. Background Diane L. Carey was born on October 2, 1954, in Flint, Michigan, United States. Sh ...

, he has written a ''

Star Trek ''Star Trek'' is an American science fiction media franchise created by Gene Roddenberry, which began with the Star Trek: The Original Series, series of the same name and became a worldwide Popular culture, pop-culture Cultural influence of ...

'' novel, ''First Frontier.''

References

;Notes ;Bibliography * Carpenter, K. with Kirkland, J.I., Burge, D.L., & Bird, J. (1999). "Ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, and their stratigraphic distribution". In Gillette, D. (Ed.) ''Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah, Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99-1''. * Carpenter, K. with Kirkland, J.I., Burge, D.L., & Bird, J. (2001). "Disarticulated skull of a new primitive ankylosaurid from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah". In Carpenter, K. ''The Armored Dinosaurs''. Indiana University Press, 2001. * Kirkland, J.I. (1998). "A new hadrosaurid from the upper Cedar Mountain Formation (Albian-Cenomanian: Cretaceous) of eastern Utah - the oldest known hadrosaurid (lambeosaurine?)" ''New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin'', Volume 14 * Kirkland, J.I. with Britt, B.B., Whittle, C.H., Madsen, S.K. & Burge, D.L. (1998). "A small coelurosaurian theropod from the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of eastern Utah". ''New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science'', Bulletin 14. * * Kirkland, J.I. and Carpenter, K. (1994). "North America's first pre-Cretaceous ankylosaur (Dinosauria) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado" ''Brigham Young University Geology Studies'', volume 40 * Kirkland, J.I. and DeBlieux, D.D. (2010). "New basal centrosaurine ceratopsian skulls from the Wahweap Formation (Middle Campanian), Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, southern Utah", In: Ryan, M.J., Chinnery-Allgeier, B.J., and Eberth, D.A. (eds.) ''New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium''. Bloomington, Indiana University Press * * * Wolfe, D.G. and Kirkland, J.I. (1998.) "Zuniceratops christopheri, n. gen. & n. sp., a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Moreno Hill Formation (Cretaceous, Turonian) of west-central New Mexico". ''Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems''. ''New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin'', volume 24 * *

External links

Enchanted Learning web site

James Kirkland.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Kirkland, James I. American paleontologists Living people 1954 births