Zby
Jurassic Z-BEE, “named for Georges Zbyszewski”
Zby is a turiasaurian sauropod unearthed from the Late Jurassic Lourinhã Formation of west-central Portugal. It was described in 2014 and named in honour of the Russian-French palaeontologist Georges Zbyszewski, who made pioneering contributions to Portuguese geology and palaeontology. Known from partial forelimb, shoulder, and cervical material, Zby was closely allied to the colossal Spanish sauropod Turiasaurus, sharing distinctively shaped humerus and carpal bones. Unlike the dominant neosauropods of its time, turiasaurs were an archaic non-neosauropod lineage that managed to flourish across the European archipelago. Zby is estimated to have measured up to nineteen metres in length, browsing on conifers and ferns alongside a rich community of Portuguese dinosaurs.
It possesses the shortest generic name of any non-avian dinosaur alongside the alvarezsaurid Kol and scansoriopterygid Yi.
Where and when
Zby lived in the Late Jurassic, from 152 to 149 million years ago (Kimmeridgian age). Its remains come from Portugal, in the Lourinhã Formation.
The numbers
Length 18 m (estimates run from 16 to 19 m). Mass about 17 t. Hip height about 4 m. That is 10.3 human-lengths, or 1.56 of a double-decker bus. These are estimates from partial skeleton; fields marked estimated by the site are length, mass, hip height.