GEOLOGICAL FORMATIONS. 35 



this horizon. Nautili also occur, the commonest species closely resem- 

 bling A. labec/iei 1 o£ Messrs. D'Archiac and Haime, but differing in the 

 position of the siphuncle. This form appears undistinguishable from 

 JV. boucliardianus, found in the upper cretaceous Arialur beds of Pon- 

 dicherry, and at a lower cretaceous horizon in Europe. A second Nautilus 

 resembles iV. subfleuriausianus? another eocene Sind species, in form, and 

 is also allied to some cretaceous types. Several Gasteropoda occur, especially 

 f6rms of Rostellaria, Cgprcea, Natica, and Turritella, but none are very 

 characteristic. Two forms of Ostrea are common — one of them allied to 

 the tertiary O.flemingfi and to the cretaceous 0. zitteliana 4 ', but distinct 

 from both. The only mollusk which certainly passes into the Ranikot 

 beds is Corbula harpa} Two eehinoderms have been found — one is 

 an Epiaster, an almost exclusively cretaceous genus, only one or 

 two tertiary species having been found ; the other is an aberrant form of 

 Echinolampas. Two or three corals complete the list of invertebrate 

 fossils found in the olive shales. These corals have been examined by 

 Prof. Martin Duncan, and found to be tertiary forms, not cretaceous. 

 In the lower part of the beds, with Cardita beaumonti, however, some 

 Amphiccelian vertebra; amphicoelian vertebrae were found, which Mr. 

 of Crocodiles. Lydekker has ascertained to be crocodilian. 6 All 



amphicGelian crocodiles are mesozoic, and the present form must be one 

 of the latest known. So far as it is possible to form an opinion from 

 very fragmentary materials, the vertebrae in question appear more nearly 

 allied to the Wealden Sucliosaums than to any other form hitherto des- 

 cribed. It has, however, been shown, 7 in the case of the Gondwana 

 fauna, that the distribution of Reptilia in past ages was not the same in 

 India as in Europe. 



i D'Arcbiac and Haime, t. c, p. 338, pi. xxxiv, fig. 12. 



2 Ibid., p. 337, pi. xxxv, fig. 1. 



3 Ibid., p. 275, pi. xxiii, figs. 14, 15. 



4 Stoliczka, Pal. Ind., Ser. VI, p. 473, pi. xliv, fig. 7. 



5 D'Arcbiac and Haime, t. c, p. 236, pi, xvi, fig. 8. 



6 Lydekker, Pal. Ind. Ser. IV. vol. i,pt. 3, p. 31- 



7 Manual Geol. India, Introduction, p. xxxiv, and pt. 1, p. 100. 



( 35 ) 



