James I. Kirkland

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James Ian Kirkland (born August 24, 1954) is an American paleontologist and geologist. He has worked with dinosaur remains from the south west United States of America and Mexico [1] [2] [3] and has been responsible for discovering new and important genera. He named (or worked with others in naming) Animantarx , [4] Cedarpelta , [5] Eohadrosaurus [6] ( nomen nudum , now named Eolambia ), [7] Jeyawati , [8] Gastonia , [9] Mymoorapelta , [10] Nedcolbertia , [11] Utahraptor , [12] Zuniceratops , [13] Europelta [14] and Diabloceratops . [15] At the same site where he found Gastonia and Utahraptor , Kirkland has also excavated fossils of the therizinosaur Falcarius . [16]

Contents

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.

Related Research Articles

<i>Utahraptor</i> Genus of dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous

Utahraptor is a genus of large dromaeosaurid dinosaur that lived in North America during the Early Cretaceous period. It was a heavy-built, ground-dwelling, bipedal carnivore. It contains a single species, Utahraptor ostrommaysi, which is the largest-known member of the family Dromaeosauridae.

<i>Animantarx</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Animantarx is a genus of nodosaurid ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early and Late Cretaceous of western North America. Like other nodosaurs, it would have been a slow-moving quadrupedal herbivore covered in heavy armor scutes, but without a tail club. The skull measures approximately 25 cm in length, suggesting the animal as a whole was no more than 3 meters long.

<i>Gastonia</i> (dinosaur) Ankylosaurian dinosaur genus from the Early Cretaceous period

Gastonia is a genus of herbivorous ankylosaurian dinosaur from the Early Cretaceous of North America, around 139 to 125 million years ago. It is often considered a nodosaurid closely related to Polacanthus. Gastonia has a sacral shield and large shoulder spikes.

Nodosauridae Extinct family of dinosaurs

Nodosauridae is a family of ankylosaurian dinosaurs, from the Late Jurassic to the Late Cretaceous period of the Northern Hemisphere, in what are now North America, Europe, and Asia.

<i>Sauropelta</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Sauropelta is a genus of nodosaurid dinosaur that existed in the Early Cretaceous Period of North America. One species has been named although others may have existed. Anatomically, Sauropelta is one of the most well-understood nodosaurids, with fossilized remains recovered in the U.S. states of Wyoming, Montana, and possibly Utah. It is also the earliest known genus of nodosaurid; most of its remains are found in a section of the Cloverly Formation dated to 108.5 million years ago.

<i>Cedarpelta</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Cedarpelta is an extinct genus of herbivorous basal ankylosaurid ankylosaur, based on material recovered from the Lower Cretaceous of North America. The skull lacks extensive cranial ornamentation, a trait which has been interpreted as plesiomorphic for ankylosaurs.

<i>Mymoorapelta</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Mymoorapelta is an ankylosaur from the Late Jurassic (Kimmeridgian-Tithonian) Morrison Formation of western Colorado, USA. The taxon is known from portions of a disarticulated skull, parts of three different skeletons and other postcranial remains. It is present in stratigraphic zones 4 and 5 of the Morrison Formation.

<i>Denversaurus</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Denversaurus is a genus of panoplosaurin nodosaurid dinosaur from the Late Cretaceous of western North America. Although at one point treated as a junior synonym of Edmontonia by some taxonomists, current research indicates that it is a distinct nodosaurid genus.

<i>Priconodon</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Priconodon is an extinct genus of dinosaur, known from its large teeth. Its remains have been found in the Aptian-Albian age Lower Cretaceous Arundel Formation of Muirkirk, Prince George's County, Maryland, USA and the Potomac Group, also located in Maryland.

<i>Theiophytalia</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Theiophytalia is a genus of herbivorous iguanodontian dinosaur from the lower Cretaceous period of Colorado, USA. It contains a single species, T. kerri.

Cedar Mountain Formation

The Cedar Mountain Formation is the name given to a distinctive sedimentary geologic formation in eastern Utah. The formation was named for Cedar Mountain in northern Emery County, Utah, where William Lee Stokes first studied the exposures in 1944.

Paleontology or palaeontology is the study of prehistoric life forms on Earth through the examination of plant and animal fossils. This includes the study of body fossils, tracks (ichnites), burrows, cast-off parts, fossilised feces (coprolites), palynomorphs and chemical residues. Because humans have encountered fossils for millennia, paleontology has a long history both before and after becoming formalized as a science. This article records significant discoveries and events related to paleontology that occurred or were published in the year 1998.

<i>Peloroplites</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Peloroplites is a monospecific genus of nodosaurid dinosaur from Utah that lived during the Late Cretaceous in what is now the Mussentuchit Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation. The type and only species, Peloroplites cedrimontanus, is known from a partial skull and postcranial skeleton. It was named in 2008 by Kenneth Carpenter and colleagues. Peloroplites was 6 metres long and weighed 2 tonnes, making it one of the largest known nodosaurids, and came from a time when ankylosaurids and nodosaurids were attaining large sizes.

Wahweap Formation

The Wahweap Formation of the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument is a geological formation in southern Utah and northern Arizona, around the Lake Powell region, whose strata date back to the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.

Moreno Hill Formation Geologic formation in western New Mexico

The Moreno Hill Formation is a geological formation in western New Mexico whose strata were deposited in the Late Cretaceous. Dinosaur remains are among the fossils that have been recovered from the formation.

<i>Diabloceratops</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Diabloceratops is an extinct genus of centrosaurine ceratopsian dinosaur that lived approximately 79.9 million years ago during the latter part of the Cretaceous Period in what is now Utah, in the United States. Diabloceratops was a medium-sized, moderately built, ground-dwelling, quadrupedal herbivore, that could grow up to an estimated 5.5 m (18.0 ft) long. At the time of its discovery, it was the oldest-known ceratopsid, and first centrosaurine known from latitudes south of the U.S. state of Montana. The generic name Diabloceratops means "devil-horned face," coming from Diablo, Spanish for "devil," and ceratops, Latinized Greek for "horned face." The specific name honors Jeffrey Eaton, a paleontologist at Weber State University and long time friend of the lead author Jim Kirkland. Eaton had a big role in establishing the Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument where the specimen was found. The type species, Diabloceratops eatoni, was named and described in 2010 by James Ian Kirkland and Donald DeBlieux.

Menefee Formation Geologic formation in New Mexico and Colorado

The Menefee Formation is a lower Campanian geologic formation found in Colorado and New Mexico, United States.

<i>Yurgovuchia</i> Extinct genus of dinosaurs

Yurgovuchia is a genus of dromaeosaurid theropod dinosaurs that lived in North America during the Early Cretaceous period in what is now the Cedar Mountain Formation. It contains a single species, Yurgovuchia doellingi. The remains were discovered in Utah, United States.

<i>Suskityrannus</i> Extinct genus of reptiles

Suskityrannus is a genus of small tyrannosauroid theropod from the Late Cretaceous in southern Laramidia. It contains a single species, Suskityrannus hazelae, believed to have lived roughly 92 million years ago. The type specimen was found in the Turonian-age Moreno Hill Formation of the Zuni Basin in western New Mexico.

Timeline of ankylosaur research

This timeline of ankylosaur research is a chronological listing of events in the history of paleontology focused on the ankylosaurs, quadrupedal herbivorous dinosaurs who were protected by a covering bony plates and spikes and sometimes by a clubbed tail. Although formally trained scientists did not begin documenting ankylosaur fossils until the early 19th century, Native Americans had a long history of contact with these remains, which were generally interpreted through a mythological lens. The Delaware people have stories about smoking the bones of ancient monsters in a magic ritual to have wishes granted and ankylosaur fossils are among the local fossils that may have been used like this. The Native Americans of the modern southwestern United States tell stories about an armored monster named Yeitso that may have been influenced by local ankylosaur fossils. Likewise, ankylosaur remains are among the dinosaur bones found along the Red Deer River of Alberta, Canada where the Piegan people believe that the Grandfather of the Buffalo once lived.

References

Notes
  1. Kirkland at al. 2001, p. ?
  2. Kirkland et al. 2006, p. ?
  3. Gates et al. 2007, p. ?
  4. Carpenter, Kirkland, Burge & Bird 1999, pp. 243-251.
  5. Carpenter, Kirkland, Burge & Bird 2001, pp. ?
  6. Kirkland 1997, p. ?
  7. Kirkland 1998, 283-295.
  8. Wolfe and Kirkland 2010, pp. 799-812.
  9. Kirkland 1998, p. ?
  10. Kirkland and Carpenter 1994, pp. 25-42.
  11. Kirkland, Britt, Whittle, Madsen and Burge 1998, 239-248.
  12. Kirkland, Burge & Gaston 1993, pp. 1-16.
  13. Wolfe and Kirkland 1998, pp. 307-317.
  14. Kirkland et al. 2013
  15. Kirkland and DeBlieux 2010, pp. 117–140.
  16. Kirkland, Zanno, Sampson, Clark & DeBlieux 2005, pp. 84-87.
Bibliography