James Arnold Dickinson, MBE, (born 1950, Leeds) is a British conservation-restoration taxidermist who repaired mounted animal skins and skeletons for museums in the United Kingdom for 40 years.

[2] Following this, he studied in the museums of Germany and Switzerland, where he was shown practical taxidermy in the form of examples of historical specimens, between January and March 1972.

When Dickinson repaired the mouth, he recreated the teeth with moulds made from a seal skull, and replaced the whiskers with some "rescued from an old tiger".

He "produced a number of the new mounts for the Life on Earth gallery",[11]: 162  including for the Leeds Irish Elk and Armley Hippo skeletons,[3][nb 1] the latter of which was over 100,000 years old.

[12][13] Dickinson also repaired the 200-year-old mounted polar bear skin which was donated to the museum by Leeds Philosophical and Literary Society in 1828.

For example, for the Natural Sciences Collections Association (NatSCA) in 2007 at the Lancashire Conservation Studio he demonstrated the preparation of a small mammal study skin, with a discussion of field data, methodology, and advice covering common difficulties.

[15] On 1 April 2015 he gave a talk for NatSCA at a session entitled "Understanding Museum Taxidermy: Construction, Care and Commissioning" at the same studio.

[16] He gave advice on accessing animal skins to would-be taxidermists: "If you live near the sea, go beachcombing, for example, and always be on the look-out for roadkill.

[17] On 29 September 2012 Dickinson took part in a BBC Radio 4 show with Claire Balding, called Taxidermists in Boston Spa, West Yorkshire, in the Ramblings series, number 22.

[20] In 2014, as a light-hearted reference to past taxidermic fakery, he concocted an Arctic platypus for the performance art company Avanti, who described him as "an internationally renowned taxidermist".