Kirkland attended the
New Mexico Institute of Mining and Technology in Socorro, New Mexico, where he obtained his B.S. in Geological Sciences in 1972. He then attended
Northern Arizona University in
Flagstaff, Arizona, where he served as Student Body President from 1975 to 1976. He obtained an M.S. in Geology here in 1977. In 1983, he began working towards his PhD at the
University of Colorado, Boulder, which he obtained in 1990. Kirkland worked as an
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, Kirkland 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 Kirkland's 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==