Dr. James Kirkland is the state paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey. An expert on the Mesozoic Period, his career includes the discoveries of numerous new dinosaurs, including one of the more notable, Utahraptor.

Kirkland was born in Weymouth, Mass., on Aug. 24, 1954. He graduated in 1977 from the New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, N.M., with a bachelor's degree in geology. He earned a master's degree in geology at Northern Arizona University in Flagstaff, and his doctorate in geology at the University of Colorado in Boulder.