James Kirkland (1954–) is an American paleontologist and geologist who has worked extensively with dinosaur fossils from the southwestern United States. He is responsible for discovering new and important genera; for example, in 1991, Kirkland found the first skeleton of Utahraptor, a large dromaeosaurid with long foot claws, in the Gaston Quarry, Utah. He currently is an adjunct professor of geology at Mesa State College in Grand Junction, Colorado. He is also a research associate at the Denver Museum of Natural History in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science, as well as official Utah State Paleontologist for the Utah Geological Survey.