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Zby

Say it: ZEE-bee

Name means: “named after the Russian-French paleontologist Georges Zbyszewski”1

Ate: PlantsLong-necksLate Jurassic

Zby was a huge, long-necked plant-eater that lived in what is now Portugal during the Late Jurassic. It was a type of sauropod called a turiasaur, and it had a heart-shaped tooth! Zby is known from a partial skeleton that includes a tooth, a shoulder blade, and arm bones.4 1

Lived

152 to 149 million years ago4

Late Jurassic

Fossils found in

Vale de Pombas, Lourinhã, central west Portugal4 1

Food

Plants4 1

When did it live?

Triassic

Jurassic

Cretaceous

252 million years ago20114566, the asteroid

cool stuff

Fun facts

Zby is known from only one partial skeleton, which includes a tooth, a neck bone fragment, a tail bone, and most of the right shoulder and arm.1

Zby's arm bone (humerus) had a special ridge on the back that is not seen in other sauropods. This ridge helps scientists tell Zby apart from its relatives.1

Zby was a turiasaur, a group of sauropods that lived only in Europe during the Late Jurassic. Its closest relative is Turiasaurus from Spain.1

The fossils of Zby were discovered in 1996 by paleontologist Octávio Mateus. They were found in a scenic bay overlooking the Atlantic Ocean, which is why the species is named atlanticus.1

Zby lived about 152 to 149 million years ago, during the Kimmeridgian age of the Late Jurassic.4

All adult sauropods found in the Late Jurassic of Portugal, including Zby, were very large. Scientists think smaller plant-eaters like the long-necked stegosaur Miragaia might have eaten the low plants instead.1

AI-made picture of Zby — An AI-made picture of how Zby might have looked, made by a computer from what scientists know. It is a guess: the real animal may have looked different, and nobody knows its true colours.

you asked

Most asked questions about Zby

?How big was Zby?

Zby was about 15 to 18 metres (49 to 59 feet) long, which is roughly as long as two school buses.2

?What did Zby eat?

Zby was a plant-eater. It had a heart-shaped tooth that it used to eat plants.2 3

?When did Zby live?

Zby lived about 152 to 149 million years ago, during the Late Jurassic period.2

?Where was Zby found?

Zby's fossils were found in Portugal, in a scenic bay overlooking the Atlantic Ocean.2 3

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For dino experts

Scientific name: Zby
Named by: Mateus et al. 20144
Group: Long-necks
Family / clade: Turiasauria4
Classification: Sauropodomorpha > Sauropoda4
Age of the rocks: 152 to 149 million years (Kimmeridgian)4
Rock formations: Praia da Amoreira-Porto Novo, Lourinhã4
Countries: Portugal4
Fossil records: 2 in the Paleobiology Database4
Discovery: Zby was named in 2014 by Octávio Mateus, Philip Mannion, and Paul Upchurch. The fossils were found in 1996 at Vale de Pombas, Portugal, and were excavated over several years.4 1
Still debated: Scientists are not sure if Zby and Turiasaurus are really different genera or just the same animal. They are very similar, but have some differences in their arm bones.1

Where the facts come from

Zby atlanticus, a new turiasaurian sauropod (Dinosauria, Eusauropoda) from the Late Jurassic of Portugal | Octávio Mateus (docentes.fct.unl.pt)
Zby (en.wikipedia.org)
ARTICLE (docentes.fct.unl.pt)
Zby in The Paleobiology Database (CC BY 4.0): age, places, rock formations, classification.

Every fact on this page has a number that points to its source. If we got something wrong, sorry, we are dino fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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