Franz Baron Nopcsa: A short life of research in dinosaur evolutionary paleobiology and Albanology.

The short life of Hungarian paleontologist and Albanologist, Franz Baron Nopcsa (1877-1933) is reviewed with an eye on his discoveries of the dinosaurs of Transylvania and their dwarfed nature, as well as his interest in the people of Albania, especially their social organization, laws, history, and ethnography during the first and second Balkan Wars. He also engaged in espionage in Romania during World War I. In addition to his research on the dwarfed dinosaurs and their insular context, his paleontological work also focused on neo-Lamarckian evolutionary theory, the origin of avian flight, and growth and sexual dimorphism in dinosaurs based on osteology and bone microstructure.