Kirkland was born on August 24, 1954, inWeymouth, Massachusetts. He graduated from Marshfield High School in Marshfield, Massachusetts in 1972, before moving to New Mexico to seek further education.
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.
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.
Carpenter, K. with Kirkland, J.I., Burge, D.L., & Bird, J. (1999). "Ankylosaurs (Dinosauria: Ornithischia) of the Cedar Mountain Formation, Utah, and their stratigraphic distribution". In Gillette, D. (Ed.)Vertebrate Paleontology in Utah, Utah Geological Survey Miscellaneous Publication 99-1.
Carpenter, K. with Kirkland, J.I., Burge, D.L., & Bird, J. (2001). "Disarticulated skull of a new primitive ankylosaurid from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah". In Carpenter, K.The Armored Dinosaurs. Indiana University Press, 2001.
Kirkland, J.I. (1998). "A new hadrosaurid from the upper Cedar Mountain Formation (Albian-Cenomanian: Cretaceous) of eastern Utah - the oldest known hadrosaurid (lambeosaurine?)"New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, Volume 14
Kirkland, J.I. with Britt, B.B., Whittle, C.H., Madsen, S.K. & Burge, D.L. (1998). "A small coelurosaurian theropod from the Yellow Cat Member of the Cedar Mountain Formation (Lower Cretaceous, Barremian) of eastern Utah".New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science, Bulletin 14.
Kirkland; Burge, D.L.; Gaston, R. (1993). "A large dromaeosaur [Theropoda] from the Lower Cretaceous of Utah".Hunteria.2 (10).
Kirkland, J.I. and Carpenter, K. (1994). "North America's first pre-Cretaceous ankylosaur (Dinosauria) from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation of western Colorado"Brigham Young University Geology Studies, volume 40
Kirkland, J.I. and DeBlieux, D.D. (2010). "New basal centrosaurine ceratopsian skulls from the Wahweap Formation (Middle Campanian), Grand Staircase–Escalante National Monument, southern Utah", In: Ryan, M.J., Chinnery-Allgeier, B.J., and Eberth, D.A. (eds.)New Perspectives on Horned Dinosaurs: The Royal Tyrrell Museum Ceratopsian Symposium. Bloomington, Indiana University Press
Wolfe, D.G. and Kirkland, J.I. (1998.) "Zuniceratops christopheri, n. gen. & n. sp., a ceratopsian dinosaur from the Moreno Hill Formation (Cretaceous, Turonian) of west-central New Mexico".Lower and Middle Cretaceous Terrestrial Ecosystems.New Mexico Museum of Natural History and Science Bulletin, volume 24
Wolfe, D.G.; Kirkland, J.I. (2010). "A new basal hadrosauroid (Dinosauria: Ornithopoda) from the Turonian of New Mexico".Journal of Vertebrate Paleontology.30 (3):799–812.doi:10.1080/02724631003763516.S2CID86614424.
