8 SMITHSONIAN MISCELLANEOUS COLLECTIONS VOL. 72 



finds, however, have been called into question for one cause or another, 

 so that as the evidence stands to-day, their exact status is very unsatis- 

 factory. 



Below I shall briefly review these various discoveries, although no 

 attempt will be made to critically re-examine the evidence, however 

 desirable that may be. I feel that in this problem I should defer to 

 those having a wider knowledge of geological structures, and especi- 

 ally to those who have available extensive collections of Sauropodous 

 dinosaur materials with which to make the necessary comparisons. 



Taken in chronological order these reported finds are as follows: 



1. Apparently the first Sauropod remains to be described from the 

 Middle Cretaceous or above were those found in the Lamenta beds, 

 probably Cenomanian, near Jabalpur, India. These specimens were 

 described by Falconer ^ in 1862, without name, and it was 1877 before 

 their Sauropod nature was recognized by Lydekker," who redescribed 

 them under the name Tifanosaurus indicus, the type being a post- 

 median caudal vertebra. 



2. In 1893, Lydekker "^ described various dinosaur bones from 

 the Guaranitic beds of Patagonia, referring them to the Sauropod 

 genera Titanosaitrus and Argyrosaurus. These identifications were 

 based upon numerous vertebral centra, limb and foot bones, frag- 

 mentary parts of the sacrum, pelvis, etc. The limb bones appear to 

 have been in a splendid state of preservation and are certainly sauro- 

 pod in aspect, though this assignment is seriously questioned by 

 Nopcsa as I shall show later. Hatcher * observes that the Guaranitic 

 beds " are referred to the Upper Cretaceous both upon stratigraphic 

 and paleontologic evidences. Just where they should be placed in 

 that series cannot be determined until we know more of the Dinosaurs 

 contained in them. At present it seems not improbable that they will 

 prove to be the equivalent of the Laramie of North America, as they 

 have long been considered by Dr. Ameghino and others." 



3. In 1899 Deperet° recognized the Sauropod genus Titanosaunis as 

 occurring in the Danian of the Montague Noire of southern France. 

 This determination was based upon a femur, an identification to 

 which, as in the former case, Nopcsa makes serious objection as to 

 its validity. He says : " "I wish briefly to draw attention to the 

 fact that the LIpper Cretaceous Tifanosaurus, as known from the 



' Paleontological Memoirs, vol. i, 1868, p. 418, pi. 34, figs. 3, 4, 5. 



' Rec. Geol. Surv. India, vol. 10, 1877, PP- 38-41. 



' Anales Museo de La Plata, vol. 2, pt. i, 1893, pp. 1-12, pis. 1-5. 



* Amer. Journ. Sci., vol. 9, 4tli ser., 1900, pp. 94, 95. 



^ Bull. Soc. Geol. France, 3d ser., vol. 27, 1899, p. 692. 



"Geol. Mag., n. s., Dec. 5, 1910, p. 261. 



