Főzy, István

Hungarian Natural History Museum, Department of Paleontology, H-1431 Budapest, Pf. 137.

Baron Franz Nopcsa (1877-1933) was a geographer and geologist, ethnographer, soldier and spy. A researcher who paid close attention to the smallest details, yet a man of wide vision, capable of great scientific insight and synthesis. A Hungarian patriot who feared for his country and took political gambles of his own determination. A respected member of academic bodies and aristocratic circles, and at the same time a man who was equally at home among warring Albanian tribes and the Csobans of Transylvania.

From time to time he would grow his hair and disappear from sight of his friends. He travelled the mountain regions under a false identity of Peter Gorlopán. He sent back reports directly to the chief of the Monarchy’s ruling elite, Franz Conrad von Hötzendorf. His character was a unique combination of a Renaissance-like openness and the romantic idealism of a Jókai novel. This adventurous existence came to a shocking end - in a double murder-suicide.

The first findings of bones were made by his sister Ilona, the remains having become exposed in a hillside on the family’s estate at Szentpéterfalva. Among these were a duck-billed dinosaur, an armoured reptilian, a sauropod with a long neck and tail, and several other exciting findings, including a predatory and a flying reptile (Pterosauria). These are the dinosaurs of Nopcsa: the Magyarosaurus dacus and others.

From the scientific point of view, the significance of these priceless relics lies in their link to the well-known dinosaurs of similar age from north America and Asia. The Transylvanian dinosaurs appear to have lived on an island – which may explain their dwarf dimensions. They were present some 67 million years ago, just prior to the complete extinction of the giant reptiles. They may even have witnessed the fatal meteorite.

A book of the Hungarian dinosaurs – not just for dinosaur enthusiasts.