16 



E Lydekker— ^ SJtctch of tie 



[No. 1, 



Fossil Batrachians. 



Trias-Jura. — We now come to the history of the fossil Batrachia 

 (Amphibia), where we shall find an equal poverty of species and genera ; such 

 as are known being merely, in all probability, a few relics left from a large 

 fauna. The oldest Indian batrachians, like their European and American 

 contemporaries, belong to the labyrinthodont order, characterized by the 

 peculiarly infolded structure of their teeth. The oldest form of the order 

 in India is only known from an undescribed skeleton obtained from a group 

 of the Gondwana system at Bijori, hence named by Mr. Medlicott the 

 Bijori group.* This skull was originally exhibited before our Society in 

 1864, and commented upon by Mr. H. F. Blanford, who thought that it 

 should be I'eferred either to Archeffosaurus or La'byrinthodon,\ adducing some 

 evidence to shew that it belonged to the former genus. Subsequently, the 

 specimen was alluded to as a true Archegosaurus by the late Dr. Oldham, |: 

 and still later by Mr. Medlicott. § I cannot discover what has become of 

 this most interesting fossil, which is certainly not in the collection of the 

 Indian Museum, where it is only represented by a cast. Judging from this 

 cast, I think it not imjDrobable that the specimen really does belong to 

 Arcliegosauriis : it much resembles a skull of that genus from the European 

 Carboniferous figured by H. von Meyer. || The European sjjecies being from 

 the Carboniferous rocks does not at all preclude the Indian species from being 

 of Triassic age, since there is considerable difference in the range in time of 

 the Pre-Tertiary land faunas and floras of the two countries ; genera having 

 very frequently survived to a later period in India than in Europe. 



From the Panchet group of the Gondwanas, we have two labyrintho- 

 donts, to which the generic names PacJiygonia and Gonioglyptus have 

 been applied by Professor Huxley ;^ these genera are only known by frag- 

 mentary skulls and jaws ; they were slender-jawed forms and allied to the 

 labyrinthodonts of the Keuper. They are classed by Professor Miall in 

 the group Euglypta with Mastodonsaurus and Gapitosaurus. The fossils on 

 which the two above-named Indian genera were founded are in the collection 

 of the Indian Museum. From the nearly contemporaneous Mangli group, we 

 have another labyrinthodont, JBrachgops laticeps of Owen, also belonging 

 to a genus otherwise unknown, and allied to European Jurassic, and African 



* M. G. S. I. Vol. X, p. 159, (art. 11, 27.) 

 t J. A. S. B., Vol. XXXTII, p. 337. 

 + R. G. S. I. Vol. IV, p. 70. 

 § Loc. cit. 



II PalosontogTaphica, Vol. VI, pi. XI, fig. 5. 

 H Pal. Ind. Ser. IV. part 1. 



