Fossil turtle Kallokibotion bajazidi named by Franz Nopcsa after his Albanian secretary Bajazid Elmaz Doda

The scientific name Kallokibotion bajazidi refers to a 70-million-year-old fossil turtle that was found in the 1920s in Eastern Hungary (Transylvania), now part of Romania [1-3]. In 1923, openly homosexual Franz Nopcsa,  nicknamed the “Dinosaur Baron,” named the “Transylvanian turtle” in honor of his Albanian secretary and lover Bajazid Elmaz Doda [3]. Franz Nopsca loved fossils and is known for pioneering techniques for fossil analysis and formulating theories about dinosaur evolution and dispersal. To the best of my knowledge, Kallokibotion bajazidi is the only reptile species owing its name to a gay relationship.

Keywords: natural history, paleontology, Uppermost Cretaceous, Austria-Hungary, Romania, Reptilia, Testudines, taxon

References
[1] Baron Francis Nopsca: On the Geological Importance of the Primitive Reptilian Fauna of the Uppermost Cretaceous of Hungary; with a Description of a New Tortoise (Kallokibotion). Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society 1923, 74, pp. 100-116 [jgslegacy.lyellcollection.org/content/79/1-4/100.abstract].
[2] Paleobiology Database: Kalokibotion bajazidi Nopsca 1923 (turtle): paleodb.org/cgi-bin/bridge.pl?a=basicTaxonInfo&taxon_no=168584.
[3] Gareth Dyke: The Dinosaur Baron of Transylvania. Scientific American October 2011, 305 (4), pp. 80-83 [www.nature.com/scientificamerican/journal/v305/n4/full/scientificamerican1011-80.html].