THE 



GEOLOGICAL MAGAZINE. 



NEW SERIES. DECADE IV. VOL. Vli. 



No. I.— JANUARY, 1900. 



I. — On a New Species of Chelonian (Podocnemis ^gtptiaca) 



FROM THE Lower Miocene of Egypt. 



By C. W. Andrews, B.Sc, F.G.S., of the British Museum (Xatimil History). 



(PLATE I.) 



THE occurrence of fossil reptiles in the Lower Miocene of 

 Moghara in Egypt has already been referred to in a paper 

 published in the last volume of this journal (1899, p. 481), where 

 a short account of the deposits in which the remains are found has 

 been given. The specimens which have been received from Captain 

 H. G. Lyons, E.E., Director- General of the Egyptian Geological 

 Survey, include bones and scutes of Crocodile, Trionyx, and of the 

 Chelonian which forms the subject of the present notice. Of the 

 two former the remains ai'e too imperfect for determination, and 

 further material is desirable ; but in the case of the last it has been 

 found possible to reconstruct the plastron and most of the carapace, 

 and from these it can be shown that this Chelonian belonged to 

 the Pleuradiran group, and is referable to the genus Fodocnemis, 

 forming a new species, to which the name Fodocnemis (sgyptiaca 

 may be applied. At the present day the genus is found only in 

 South America and Madagascar, but, as in many other cases in 

 which the modern representatives of a group are confined to the 

 Southern Hemisphere, where they may uccur in widely separated 

 areas, in the Tertiary period species existed in the Northern Hemi- 

 sphere. In the present instance two species of Fodocnemis have 

 been recorded from the Lower Eocene of England and India — that 

 from the former being Fodoc7iemis Bowerbanki {z=iPlatemys Bowerhanlci ; 

 jEm?/s IcBvis, Owen), from the London Clay of Sheppey ; that from 

 the latter, Fodocnemis indica, from Nila in the Salt Range. The 

 present species is interesting as showing that in early Miocene 

 times the genus existed in Africa, whence probably it spread into 

 Madagascar, now one of its headquarters. 



Description of the Specimens. 

 The carapace of the type-specimen, as figured (PI. I, Fig. 1), 

 is very incomplete in its peripheral region, for, although some 

 portions of the marginal bones are preserved, it has not been 

 possible to fit them into their places. Of the remainder of the 

 carapace the neurals 3 and 5 are wanting, 2 and 6 incomplete, 

 all the costals are imperfect at their outer ends, and much of the 

 posterior ones is broken away. The general form is somewhat 

 depressed, and there is no trace of any keel. The neurals (n) 

 were six in number, the first being the largest and the last 



DECADE IV. VOL. VII.— NO. I. ■ 1 



