MEMOIES 



OF THE 



GEOLOGICAL SURVEY OF INDIA, 



!afe«ni0ljjflta Jndt^a. 



Observations on fossil crabs from tertiary deposits in Sind and Kutch, 

 by Fbrd. Stoliczka, Ph. D., JPalceontologist, Geological Survey of India. 



[With Plates I— V]. 



The fossil Crustacea, about to be noticed in the present communication, all 

 belong to the Decapod group, with a short, ventrally inflected tail, known i*nder 

 the name of Brachyura. Al. Milne-Edwards, in one of his recent publications,* 

 specially devoted to the study of fossil Grustacea, separates the Brachyura into 

 B. macrocephala, which have the facial region well developed, and B. microce- 

 phala, which have it less developed. 



The former he sub-divides into Macroceph. eustomata, with a broad frontal 

 region, and Macr. oligorhyncha, in which the same part becomes considerably 

 narrowed. The Eustomata he .again classes in Gyclometopa, Catometopa, and 

 Oxyrhyncha. The first tribe, the forms of which are characterized by a large cara- 

 pace with the anterior part regularly curved, the posterior contracted, and in the 

 males of which the tail occupies the whole width of the sternum, inckides two 

 large families, the portunidm and cancmridm, the former having the last pair 

 of feet natatory, and broadly flattened, while in the latter the same are ambulatory, 

 and quite similar in form to the three preceding pairs of feet. The greater number 

 of the tertiary fossil Brachyura belongs to these two families, each of which is 

 again sub-divided into sub-families and a great number of genera, carefully reviewed 

 by Al. Milne-Edwards in the above quoted work. As compared with each other, 

 the CANCERID^ are in recent and fossil state more numerous than the jportunid^. 

 I will note three species of the former, belonging to the genera Falceocarpilius and 

 Galenopsis, and two species of the latter, referable to the genus Neptumis. 



The second principal division of the Brachyura, — ^the Microcephala, — only 

 includes the family lbucosidm, and in this I will have to record a very peculiar 

 small crab, for which I propose the new generic name Typilobus. 



* Histoire des Crustac^s Podophthalmaires fossiles, Vol. I, Paris, 1861-65, (Ann. de Sc. Nat., ivme Serie). 



