Sir P. Egerton on Fossil Fishes from Southern India. 89 



APPENDIX. 



On the Remains of Fishes found by Mr. Kaye and Mr. Cunliffe in the Pondicherry Beds. 



By Sir PHILIP GREY EGERTON, M.P., F.R.S., F.G.S. 



[Reprinted from the Quarterly Journal of the Geological Society, vol. i. p. 164.] 



The fish remains collected by Mr. Kaye and Mr. Cunliffe in the neighbourhood of 

 Pondicherry having been placed in my hands for examination, I have endeavoured 

 to discharge the task committed to me to the best of my ability, by comparing the 

 Indian fossils with analogous forms from other localities, and with the figures and 

 descriptions given by Agassiz in the ' Poissons Fossiles.' The collection consists 

 wholly of teeth ; they are, generally speaking, in bad condition, few of the Placoid 

 teeth retaining their bases, a very essential element in the identification and de- 

 scription of species. Before proceeding to detail the characters of the several spe- 

 cimens, it may be advisable briefly to relate the results at which I have arrived 

 from the study of these ichthyolites. With the exception of two specimens, the 

 collection is entirely composed of teeth of Squaloid fishes. Of these two exceptions 

 one belongs to the Ganoid order and to the family of Pycnodonts, and it is probably 

 a Spharodus ; the order is referred to the Cycloid genus Enchodus, the teeth very 

 closely resembling those of Enchodus halocyon, a species common to the chalk of 

 England, continental Europe, and North America. Of the Placoid remains, two 

 species only belong to the section of the Squaloid family with serrated teeth, and 

 both of them are referable to the genus Corax, which Agassiz informs us is re- 

 stricted to the chalk. One species is not distinguishable from Corax pristodontus 

 of the Maestricht beds. The other is undescribed. The Squaloid teeth with cut- 

 ting edges compose the bulk of the collection. They are referable to at least a 

 dozen species, all corresponding in the absence of plaits or striae on the surfaces of 

 the enamel. Although there are close approximations amongst them to the species 

 both of the Cretaceous and Miocene period, yet it is somewhat remarkable that I 

 have not seen a feature nor a character which recals in the remotest degree the 

 forms of the Eocene period. They belong principally to the Odontaspid type ; one 

 species being closely allied to, if not identical with, the Odontaspis rhaphiodon of 

 the chalk of Europe. Two or three species are referable to the genus Otodus, one 

 approaching Otodus appendiculatus ; also from the chalk. Of the genera found in 

 the Pondicherry beds, the following is the stratigraphical distribution assigned by 

 Agassiz. The genera Lamna, Odontaspis, and Oxyrhina extend from the recent 



