34 LA TOUCHE: GEOLOGY OF WESTERN RAJPUTANA. 



split along definite bedding planes, and all the fossils I obtained are 

 in a more or less fragmentary condition. One specimen appears to 

 be part of the cast of a Unto shell, but the hinge is absent ; I also 

 found another small fragment of a bivalve shell, which may be a Car- 

 (Hum. Ihe most interesting plant remains obtained are two im- 

 pressions of veined leaves, which are undoubtedly dicotyledonous 

 angiosperms and, so far as they go, indicate that the beds are not 

 older than cretaceous. But, further to the north-east on the borders 

 of Jaisalmir, there is a group of sandstones containing fossil wood 

 and plant remains which Mr. Blanford considered to be on the same 

 horizon as the Barmer sandstones, and which Mr. Oldham found to un- 

 derlie the marine Jurassic beds of jaisalmir. Mr. Blanford distinctly 

 states that these sandstones, named the Lathi group by Mr. Oldham, 

 contain dicotyltdvnous fossil wood, and we must either suppose 

 that in this region dicotyledonous plants appeared at an earlier stage 

 of geological history than they do in Europe, or that the sandstones of 

 Lathi dc not really underlie the Jurassic strata of Jaisalmir but are 

 faulted against them, or that the latter are not really Jurassic, but 

 belong to a higher stage among the Mesozoic strata. So little is as 

 yet known of the palaeontology of these Jaisalmir rocks that the 

 question must be left unsettled for the present. It should be stated, 

 however, that among the fossils collected by Mr. Blanford from the 

 Jaisalmir limestones, the group supposed to overlie the Lathi sand- 

 stones, several were determined by Dr Ficstmantel, who found that 

 they were characteristic Jurassic forms, occurring in the Chari group 

 of the Cutch Oolites. 1 



9. Mesozoic and Tertiary strata of Jaisalmir. 



The strata of Mesozoic and Tertiary age succeeding the Talchir 

 boulder beds in Jaisalmir have been described by Messrs. Blanford 

 and Oldham, but their relations and palaeontology have not been 



' Rec. Geol. Surv Ind., Vol X, Pt. 1, p. 19. 

 C 34 ) 



