204 Evolution and Distribution of Fishes 



lists that Neumayr, Nikitin and Pavlow give for higher 

 and typical marine beds of the Jurassic in which fish remains 

 are unmentioned, Rohon gives sixty-three species of plants, 

 twenty-three of insects, various remains of crustaceans, and 

 a few species of fish, probably belonging to the genus 

 PhoUdophonis, as determined by A. S. Woodward. 



In the "Kota" beds of the Deccan, India, Sykes 

 (750:272), (757:8:23; 9:351; 10:371) and Egerton 

 have described a succession of strata that appear to be 

 transition beds from the Upper Triassic to the Lower Juras- 

 sic and which are largely or wholly freshwater in origin. 

 In a rock section about forty feet thick Bell records the 

 alternation of five layers of bituminous shale with limestones 

 or dark shales. From the shale Bell and Egerton (757: 

 10:371) have described Daped'nis egertoni, that is allied 

 to the South English Liassic species D. politus (Figs. 27, 

 28), Lepidotus longiceps, L. breviceps and L. deccanensis, 

 while the latter further observes that "the specimens of bitu- 

 minous shales contain besides the fish remains, some copro- 

 lites and some traces of plants." In the later paper it is 

 noted that the fish remains are associated with abundance of 

 Estheria mangaliensis, the dipnoan Ceratodus, also with 

 Brachyops laticeps and Hyperodapedon. All of these were 

 contemporaneous with a rich Gondwana flora, and are clear- 

 ly freshwater. 



But as showing how readily incorrect views may be 

 developed, when Sykes recorded L. deccanensis^ he at once 

 concluded that this must be a marine form, and so suggested 

 that it was "indicative of the former submerged state of 

 the Peninsula of India." Taken in conjunction with Eger- 

 ton's later observation on the geographical distribution of 

 Lepidotus (757: 10:373), ^^^ ^^^ other associated organ- 

 isms, it indicates that a lake-bed, or extensive river flood- 

 plain, existed then amid the dry land of the Indian massif. 



As in all preceding formations so for the Jurassic it will 

 be observed that bituminous shales or bituminous rocks of 

 some kind are usually recorded wherever a rich fish fauna 

 exists; and it is undoubtedly still in connection with accumu- 

 lations of freshwater — not marine — fishes that these bitu- 

 minous products are associated. In the preceding context 



