160 



MR. E. LYDEKKEE ON DINOSATJEIAN YERTEBEiE. 



higher Cretaceous of India of two species of Dinosaurs apparently 

 closely allied to one from the lowest Cretaceous of Europe seems to 

 be another instance of the survival in India of allied or identical 

 generic t} T pes to a date after they had disappeared from Europe. 

 A somewhat similar instance is afforded by the occurrence of Mega- 

 losaurus in the Arrialur group (white chalk) of Trichinopoly in 

 Southern India * — that genus being mainly characteristic of the 

 "Wealden and Stonesfield Slate, although lingering on to the 

 Maestricht beds f — and also by the oft-quoted Siwalik fauna. I 

 may also observe that if the Wealden vertebrae really belong to 

 Ornithopsis, then we shall have good evidence of the distinctness 

 of that genus from the North- American Camarasaurus, with which 

 it has been identified by some writers — a distinction which might, 

 I think, justify the reference of the English genus, together with 

 Titanosaurus, to a separate family, the Ornithopsidae. 



Einally, I may express a hope that the Officers of the Geological 

 Survey of India will direct their attention to the acquisition, from 

 the Lam etas of Pisdura, of other remains of Dinosaurs which may 

 include vertebrae of the precaudal region, and thus indicate the true 

 relationship of Titanosaurus to Ornithopsis. 



Discussion. 



Prof. Seeley regretted the absence of the Author. The vertebra 

 on which Titanosaurus was founded had long been known in Eng- 

 land, but was considered insufficient to enable the relations of the 

 animal to be determined. The femur had not been figured. The 

 characters of the vertebrae were insufficient to show that there was 

 any affinity to Cetiosaurus, and Pelorosaurus was only a species of 

 Cetiosaurus. The speaker considered that the vertebrae from the 

 Isle of Wight were also insufficient for identification. The facets 

 supposed to be those for the attachment of chevron-bones looked for- 

 ward and outward, so that it was very questionable whether they 

 were facets at all. 



The affiliation to Ornithopsis rested on insufficient evidence. There 

 was more similarity with Macrurosaurus, but the centrum in that 

 genus is cylindrical. Although a large portion of the caudal region 

 of the vertebral column of Macrurosaurus was known, its affinities 

 were very doubtful. 



Mr. Htjlke concurred with the Author in thinking that the close 

 similarity of the Indian and the Isle-of- Wight vertebrae warranted 

 the assumption of a generic, if not specific identity. He had never 

 (nor, he believed, had Mr. Eox) found these vertebrae in the 

 beds hitherto yielding the remains of Ornithopsis, and he was in- 

 clined to regard their reference to this Dinosaur only as provisional, 

 the view taken, he understood, by the Author. 



* Palseontologia Indica, ser. 4, vol. i. pt. 3, p. 26. 



t Vide Seeley, Quart. Journ. Geol. Soc. vol, xxxix. p. 246 (1883). 



