Discoverer of Utahraptor Joins Utah Geological Survey

James I. Kirkland, Ph.D., a world-traveling dinosaur expert involved in the discovery of the Utahraptor fossil, will be joining the Utah Geological Survey as State Paleontologist, effective June 1, 1999.

Kirkland was most recently a senior paleontologist with the Dinamation International Society, an organization he joined in 1990. He is an expert on the Mesozoic age, a period that covers the Triassic, Jurassic, and Cretaceous eras of 70 to 240 million years ago. He has excavated fossil-rich areas of the southwestern United States, Mexico, and Mongolia, reconstructing ancient marine and terrestrial environments. In 1991, in a joint project with the College of Eastern Utah, he was involved in the discovery of the oldest and largest dromaeosaur yet, the Utahraptor ostrommaysorum.

The author or co-author of 38 published professional journal articles, reports, papers, and book chapters relating to the life and environment of ancient times, Kirkland serves on the Tampa Museum of Science and Industry Advisory Board, the National Science Foundation Advisory Board, and the Dinosaurus Magazine Scientific Advisory Board. He is an adjunct professor of geology at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado, and research associate of the Denver Museum of Natural History, the Museum of Western Colorado, the College of Eastern Utah Prehistoric Museum, and the Mesa Southwest Museum.

As State Paleontologist, Kirkland will conduct field surveys, excavations, laboratory research, and curation as well as being a liaison to the Utah scientific community. He will also serve as advisor to the UGS Director on paleontological issues and promote the paleontology of Utah. His new position makes him the statewide advisor to the Utah Friends of Paleontology, a non-profit volunteer organization dedicated to preserving Utah's fossil record through public education and volunteer support of paleontological institutions. Kirkland is scheduled to attend the annual UFOP meeting May 21 - 23, which will be held at the Eccles Dinosaur Park in Ogden.

Kirkland graduated from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology and earned his master's degree in geology at Northern Arizona University. He received his doctorate in geology from the University of Colorado.