Baron Franz Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás (also Baron Nopcsa von Felső-Szilvás, Baron Nopcsa, Ferenc Nopcsa, báró felsőszilvási Nopcsa Ferenc, Baron Franz Nopcsa, and Franz Baron Nopcsa; May 3, 1877 – April 25, 1933) was a Hungarian aristocrat, adventurer, scholar, geologist, paleontologist and albanologist. He is widely regarded as one of the founders of paleobiology, and first described the theory of insular dwarfism. He was also a specialist on Albanian studies and completed the first geological map of northern Albania. Life Nopcsa was born in 1877 in Déva, Transylvania, Kingdom of Hungary (today Deva, Romania), to the Hungarian Nopcsa aristocratic family of Romanian origin. He was the son of , a member of the Hungarian Parliament. In 1895 Nopcsa's younger sister Ilona discovered dinosaur bones at the family estate at Szacsal (today part of Sânpetru, Sântămăria-Orlea, Romania). He shared the bones with Professor Eduard Suess, who encouraged him to study them. Following the professor's advice, he started studying geology at the University of Vienna in 1897, where he quickly advanced in his studies. He gave his first academic lecture in 1899 at the age of twenty-two. He acquired a PhD in geology in 1903 from the university; his doctorate focused on geologically mapping the area surrounding the family estate. On 20 November 1906 Nopcsa met the then eighteen-year-old Bajazid Elmaz Doda in Bucharest and hired him as his secretary. Nopcsa later recounted this meeting in his memoir: Additionally, Nopcsa was interested in Albania, which was a province of the Ottoman Empire contending for independence in that time. He was one of the few outsiders who ventured into the mountainous areas in the north of Albania. He soon learned the Albanian dialects and customs. Eventually, he got on good terms with the leaders of the Albanian nationalist resistance who fought against the Turks in the region. Nopcsa gave passionate speeches and smuggled in weapons. In 1907 on one of his expeditions into the Albanian mountains, he was held hostage by the bandit Mustafa Lita, together with Bajazid Doda. Lita demanded ten thousand Turkish pounds for his release. In his memoirs Nopcsa described his elaborate plan to get out of this situation, which involved being taken to Prizren as a spy. He was eventually rescued by Doda's father, who had brought 'ten armed retainers'. In 1912 the Balkan states joined forces to drive out the Turks. However, afterwards the newly liberated states immediately plunged