Gay Transylvanian Baron Paleontologist Spy
Guys
I just read this article in the Smithsonian Magazine and I just
This is a real person who existed. His name was Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felo-Szilvas. He had a castle, Sacel Castle, near Deva, Romania, which is in Transylvania.
He hypothesized that dinosaurs were related to birds in 1906. THIS IS LITERALLY A CENTURY BEFORE JURASSIC PARK CAME OUT. Remember: around the time JP was released, there was STILL a lot of debate as to whether dinosaurs were “really” related to birds. In Nopcsa’s time, everybody was still in the tail-dragging big slow lizard camp.
Did I mention he was hella gay? he was really hella gay. His first lover was Count Louis Draskovic. Later, he’d shack up with his young Albanian secretary, Bajazid Elmaz Doda, who he said was “the only person who has truly loved me.” He named a species of prehistoric turtle after the guy: Kallakobotion bajazidi. They lived together for 30 years.
Poor guy also probably had bipolar disorder–his work was characterized by periods of frenzied fieldwork, and then he’d have to retreat into isolation for weeks due to an illness he’d describe as “shattered nerves.”
So yeah let’s remember this pioneer of paleontology because he’s cool as heck.