

15. Palaeontological Notes on the Gangamopteris Beds 



of Khunmu (in Kashmir). 



By Hem Chandra Das- Gupta. 



During the summer of 1908 I had an opportunity of 

 visiting the plant-bearing beds of Khunmu in Kashmir with 

 the Presidency College Geological party. The beds were first 

 described by Dr. Noetling l and then by Mr. Hayden,* while 

 Mr. Middlemiss s went to the locality after I had left. The 

 fossils previously obtained from these beds have already been 

 described by Mr. Seward and Dr. Smith Woodward. 4 During 

 our visit, which had to be limited to a few hours, besides 

 Gangamopteris kashmiriensis , Sew. , and Psygmophyllum Hollandi, 

 Sew., one Tceniopteris sp. and a few fish fossils were obtained 

 from these beds. The specimen of Tceniopteris is extremely 

 ill-preserved ; and the piscine fauna includes a palaeoniscid fish 

 and an ichthyodorulite associated with the dental impression 

 of a fish belonging to the Cestraciontidae. A short description 

 of the ichthyodorulite and the palaeoniscid fish is given below. 



The ichthyodorulite belongs to the first group of Dr. Smith 

 Woodward 5 and from its very close association with the 

 cestraciontid tooth it can be very reasonably asserted that the 

 tooth and the spine belong to the same individual. The dental 

 impression recalls that of Orodus or of Ctenacanthus , both of 

 which belong to the family of the Cestraciontidae and have 

 been united into a single genus by Dr. Newberry. 6 The 

 ichthyodorulite is about 53 mm. in length and elongated 

 triangular, the greatest width at the base being only 4 mm. It 

 is striated longitudinally and the striae seem to have been set 

 with tubercles. 



The palaeoniscid fish shows a close resemblance with the 

 lower Permian Amblypterus eupterygus, Ag. 7 Two species of 



1 Gen. Rep., Geolog. Survey India for 1902-3, p. 22. 



2 Records, Geolog. Survey India, xxxvi, pt. 1. 

 8 Records, Geolog. Survey India, xxxvii, pt. 4. 



* Palaeont. Ind., New. Ser., vol. ii f Mem. No. 2; Records, Geolog. 



Survey, India, xxxvi, pt. 1. 



* Catalogue of fossil fishes, pt. ii, p. 93. 



6 Rep., Geol. Survey, Ohio, ii, pt ii (1875), p. 54. 



1 Pois. foss., ii, pt. 1, pp. 41, 56, tab. 3, figs. 5, 6. This species and 

 a few others have all been united together by Dr. Smith Woodward 

 under the name Elonychthys macropterus (Rronn.), (Catalogue of fossil 

 fishes, pt. ii, p. 491). In his paper on € Amblypterus, Pal&oniscus, 

 Gyrolepisand Pyqopteraus ' (Quart. Journ. Geolog. Soe.,xxxiii,p. 552), Dr. 

 Traqu air divides the species of Amblypterus into five distinct types, and 

 of them A . macropterus, Ag., and A. nemopterus, Ag., are the types for the 



