IN SOUTHERN INDIA. 



287 



thick mass of nearly unfossiliferous rocks, one bed of which, 

 however, yielded a tooth and other remains of a megalo- 

 saurus, one of the great extinct saurians characteristic of the 

 mesozoic rocks of Europe. 



Owing to the obscurity and irregularity of the bedding 

 which prevail in most parts of all three sub-groups, Mr. H. F. 

 Blanford found it impracticable to measure the thickness of 

 the formations with any accuracy, but he estimated them 

 roughly to average about 1,000 feet each. 



The palseontological features of these cretaceous rocks are 

 of the highest interest to the biologist, the fauna being a very 

 rich one, and showing relationship not only with the other 

 Indian cretaceous faunas as those of Assam and of Bagh 

 in Central India, but also with those of the equivalent rocks in 

 Arabia and South Africa, and with those of the yet far more 

 distant cretaceous formations of Western Europe. The rela- 

 tionship between the South Indian and Khasi beds (Assam) is 

 so great that it is thought very probable that the old Indian 

 cretaceous sea covered both regions and gave rise also to the 

 deposition of the cretaceous rocks found in the hill ranges, 

 extending from Assam as far south as Arakan. Very remark- 

 ble also is the close relationship between this South Indian 

 fauna and that of the cretaceous beds in Natal, where out 

 of 35 species of mollusca and echinodermata no less than 22 

 were found to be identical with some of the commonest fossils 

 known^from Trichinopoly District. 



Although geographically so much nearer to the South 

 Indian cretaceous region than the Khasi hills deposits, the 

 fauna of the cretaceous rocks of Bagh (in Central India) is 

 but slightly allied to the first, and shows much greater affinity 

 to that of the Arabian cretaceous series. These facts suggest 

 many ideas as to the former distribution of the seas and lands 

 which would certainly appear to have been widely different 

 from what they now are, and this in despite of the views of 

 Darwin and Wallace so strongly put in the latter author's 



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