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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Natural History Heroes

Natural History Heroes: Franz Baron Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvás

Franz Baron Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvás

BBC Radio 4 Extra - Natural History Heroes, Franz Baron Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvás

Paul Barrett's Natural History Hero is paleontologist Franz Baron Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvás

Paul Barrett explores the life of 20th-century palaeontologist, Franz Baron Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvás. From October 2015.

Franz Baron Nopcsa von Felso-Szilvás was among the first people to think about what fossils can tell us about how extinct animals lived – rather than just giving them a name Nopcsa is therefore considered the father of palaeo-biology. Nopcsa described the first fossil evidence that the Sauropods had gone through a process of island dwarfism – shrinking body size over generations to adapt to living on islands. 

Nopcsa was a flamboyant character and was unafraid to make his more wacky and outlandish theories public and was also one of very few openly gay men in the early part of the 20th century. 

Paul Barrett, dinosaur research at the Natural History Museum, explains why Nopsca is his Natural History Hero.

Produced by Ellie Sans

First broadcast on BBC Radio 4 in October 2015.

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