12 



R. Lydelclcer— .4 Slcetcli of the 



[No 1, 



mammals of Secondary and early Tertiary India may have filled many a 

 puzzling gap in the animal series. 



It is the same with the I'eptiles, which were doubtless the dominant forms 

 during the epoch of the Trias-Jura, and which have only here and there 

 left a trace of their former existence in this country. Why may not many 

 forms of those half -birds, half- reptiles have inhabited Secondary India of whose 

 existence we have ample proofs in other countries ; and why may not many of 

 such Indian forms have still more closely bridged the gap which even yet exists 

 between birds and reptiles ? Great and numerous as are the advancements 

 in uniting the scattered links of the broken chain of vertebrate evolution, 

 it must ever be borne in mind that, while we have evidence of a large Secon- 

 dary land-surface like India, which has hitherto yielded scarcely any links 

 to this wondrous chain, we must never despair if we find that other coun- 

 tries ai'e still of themselves unable to make the chain extend across all the 

 gaps, owing to the want of a few links. Who shall say that such missing 

 links never inhabited Secondary India, where their remains either still lie 

 buried, or have been for ever lost beyond recovery ? I, indeed, imagine that 

 early India must have teemed with reptiles, and perhaps with higher forms 

 of life, for it is inconceivable that this country was once mainly a mere 

 forest of plants, of the existence of which we have such ample evidence in the 

 Trias- Jura, unenlivened, except in one or two small spots, by vertebrate life. 



I now proceed to sketch what is known of the fossil vertebrates of 

 India, commencing with the lowest class, and tracing it through the various 

 formations from the lowest in which it occurs to the highest ; and similarly 

 with the liigher classes. I must premise that very many of the Indian 

 "fossil vertebrates are only known by extremely scanty remains, and that 

 their affinities are consequently obscure. Of others, again, only very slight 

 preliminary descriptions, without figures, have yet been published, and con- 

 sequently foreign palaeontologists have not yet had the opportunity of 

 comparing them with other species, by which their affinities might be 

 more fully illustrated. 



FossTL Fishes. 



Carloniferous. — The earliest fishes of which we have at present any 

 record in India are only known by some few teeth and fin-spines, collected by 

 Dr. Waagen and Mr. Wynne of the Geological Survey, in the Salt-Eange of 

 the Punjab, and described by the former writer in the ' Palseontologia Indi- 

 ca.'* These fish remains were obtained from strata termed by Dr. Waagen 

 the " Productus-Limestone," corresponding in the main to the Carbonife- 

 rous. Sigmodus duhius is a fish belonging to a new genus founded upon 

 a single tooth ; this tootli is of an elongated conical form, and much resem- 

 * Ser. XIII, parts 1 and 2, 1879-80; the latter part in the press. 



