Baron von Nopcsa (was Re: "Dinosaur Cowboy" film)

[Tim Williams <twilliams_alpha@hotmail.com>]

Rose Alexander wrote:

> >>>>I think "The Adventures of Baron von Nopcsa" would
> make a better
> flick.
> >(Though it would probably warrant a "PG" rating - or
> even an "R".)
>
> ...huh?...who?

Baron Nopcsa was a pioneer in paleontology and paleobiology, who named many 
new fossil species, including around 10 dinosaur genera (most of which 
turned out to be invalid).  He also attempted to reconstruct the behavior of 
extinct animals, including the hypothetical ancestors of birds.  In a series 
of papers Nopcsa (1907, 1923, 1929) proposed that bird ancestors were 
ground-dwelling bipeds that flapped their feathered forelimbs to increase 
running speed.  On the personal front, Nopcsa was rather (OK, very) 
egotistical and eccentric, and he met a tragic end by his own hand.

Wikipedia provides as good a summary as any of Nopcsa's life...

Franz Nopcsa von Felsõ-Szilvás

Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felsõ-Szilvás
(Also Ferenc Nopcsa, Nopcsa Ferenc and Franz Baron Nopcsa)

Baron Nopcsa (May 3rd, 1877 - April 25, 1933) was a Hungarian-born 
aristocrat, adventurer, scholar, and paleontologist. He is widely regarded 
as one of the founders of paleobiology and albanology.

Life
Nopcsa was born to a long line of Hungarian aristocrats in 1877 in 
Transylvania, which at that time was a part of Austria-Hungary. In 1895 
Nopcsa's younger sister Ilona discovered dinosaur bones from the family 
estate in Szentpéterfalva. This led to Nopcsa's enrolment to the University 
of Vienna to study the bones. He advanced quickly in his studies and gave 
his first lecture in the age of 22.

In addition to dinosaurs Nopcsa had another passion: Albania. He was one the 
few outsiders who ventured into the hostile and mountainous tribal areas in 
the North of the country. He learned local dialects and customs and 
eventually became to lead resistance against the Turks who occupied the 
region. He gave passionate speeches and smuggled in weapons. In 1912 the 
Balkan states joined forces to drive out the Turks. This was succesful, but 
the newly-liberated states were immediately plunged into internal conflicts. 
Out of these conflicts Albania appeared as an independent state. In an 
international conference aiming to clarify the status of Albania Nopcsa was 
a contender for the throne of that country, but eventually lost.  [A 
colorless Prussian royal named Prince William of Wied got the gig as king of 
Albania; he lasted less than a year in the job.  An Albanian co-worker 
eloquently described Prince William to me as a "piece of crap".]

In the First World War Nopcsa was a spy for Austria-Hungary and also led a 
group of Albanian volunteers. At the end of the war Transylvania was ceded 
to Romania and Nopcsa lost his estates and other possessions. He was forced 
to pick up a job and became the head of the Hungarian Geological Institute.

Nopcsa's tenure in the Geological Institute was short-lived. He moved to 
Vienna with his long-standing Albanian lover and secretary Bayazid Doda to 
study fossils. There he run into financial difficulties and was sidelined in 
his work. To cover his depts he had to sell his fossils to the Natural 
History Museum in London. Nopcsa became depressed and finally, in 1933, he 
shot first his lover and then himself.

Nopcsa left behind a considerable quantity of scientific publications and 
private diaries. The diaries paint a picture of a complex man with great 
intuition but inability to understand the motives of others. His devotion to 
the cause of the Albanians was a contrast to his insensitivity. He was 
driven, ambitious and occasionally arrogant. Nopcsa was also openly 
anti-semitic. The diaries only hint towards his homosexuality, which was 
well-known during his time.

In his diaries he wrote about his bid to the throne of Albania:

"Once a reigning European monarch, I would have no difficulty coming up with 
the further funds needed by marrying a wealthy American heiress aspiring to 
royalty, a step which under other circumstances I would have been loath to 
take."

Contribution to paleontology and geology
Nopcsa's main contribution to paleontology was that he was one of the first 
researchers who tried to "put flesh into bones". In the time when 
paleontologists where mainly interested in assembling bones he tried to 
deduce physiology and behavior of the dinosaurs he was studying. Nopcsa was 
the first to suggest that dinosaurs cared for their young and exhibited 
complex social behavior.

Another of Nopcsa's theories that was ahead of its time was that birds 
evolved from ground-dwelling cursorial dinosaurs that evolved feathers to 
run faster. This theory only found favour in the sixties. Only recently 
fossil finds have unearthed tree-living feathered dinosaurs, discrediting 
the theory. [As Mike said, this is not exactly true - TW] However, Nopcsa's 
view that at least some dinosaurs were warm-blooded is now shared with much 
of the scientific community.

Nopcsa studied Transylvanian dinosaurs intensively. They were smaller than 
their cousins elsewhere in the world, for example he unearthed six-meter 
long sauropods, a groups of dinosaurs which commonly grew to 30 meters or 
more. Nopcsa deduced that the area where the remains where found used to be 
an island, now called Hateg Island. Limited resources found on island 
commonly have an effect of reducing the size of animals over the 
generations. His theory is widely accepted even today.

Nopcsa was also a geologist. He was one of the first to study the geology of 
Western Balkans, especially tectonic structures.

Contribution to albanology
During his lifetime Nopcsa published more then fifty scientific studies 
concerning Albania. These included publications in wide-ranging areas, such 
as linguistics, folk lore, ethnology, history, and kanun, Albanian customary 
law. He was the leading expert of Albania in his time.

After Nopcsa's death several important manuscripts were left unpublished. 
The albanological part of his estate ended in the hand of professor Norbert 
Jokl, a renowned specialist in Albanian studies. The material consisted of 
thousands of pages of notes, sketches and finished text. Nopcsa's library 
came into possession of Mid'hat Bey Frashëri and, when Frashëri was forced 
to flee the country, was confiscated by the communist government of Enver 
Hoxha and eventually formed the core of the Albanological section of 
Albania's National Library.