SIWALIK AND NARBADA CHELONIA. 
5—159 
Museum, No. E 76) the corresponding- dimensions are 5’1 and 6-5 inches. The 
interval between the cornua in the larger specimens is about 19, and in the small 
Indian Museum specimen 14 inches ; the latter specimen therefore indicates an 
animal about one-fourth smaller than the larger specimens. These smaller but 
apparently adult individuals may perhaps have been females.^ 
Xiphiplastron . — There is a fine specimen of the posterior portion of the 
xiphiplastron of this species from the Siwalik Hills in the Cautley collection of the 
British Museum (No. 40629), whicli is figured of one-sixth the natural size from the 
dorsal aspect in vol. I. pi. XXX. fig. 2 of “ Falconer’s Paheontological Memoirs.” 
The specimen terminates posteriorly in two very distinct cornua, separated by a 
deep notch shaped like a segment of a suboval. Near its line of fracture there is 
seen the impression formed by the anterior border of the anal plates, and the 
slight notch on the right side of the figure corresponds to the notch occurring in the 
existing Testudo elongata at the point where the suture between the postabdominal 
and anal plates reaches the margin of the xiphiplastron. The form of this j^ortion 
of the shell is very like that occurring in the existing T. elongata and Manouria emys ; 
and therefore confirms the conclusion drawn from the epiplastron as to the relative 
length of the plastron. The interval between the two cornua of the fossil 
xiphiplastron is about 22 inches. Taking this as a modulus and comparing it with 
the dimensions of a male T. elongata in which the corresponding interval measures 
2-4 inches and the length of the carapace is 8-2 inches, the calculated length of the 
complete fossil carapace of the largest individuals would be about 8 feet in a straight 
line ; the corresponding length of the smaller (female ?) specimens being about 6 feet. 
Carapace . — The British Museum possesses a large series of fragments of the 
carapace, from which, together with the portions of the plastron already noticed, a 
restoration in plaster of the entire shell was made under Falconer’s superintendence, 
and is now exhibited in the Reptile Gallery. One fragment (No. R 326) consists of 
the posterior extremity .of the carapace, and shows that the pygal plates are not 
united, as in the existing Manouria enigs : this specimen (which probably belonged to 
a male animal) also shows that the pygal and adjacent marginal scutes are incurved 
inferiorly and situated nearly vertically, as in the males of Testudo elongata.^ and still 
more markedly in Manouria emys ; so that when the shell is viewed directly from 
above very little of the pygal plates is visible. In other parts Falconer’s restoration 
follows the lines of a typical land-tortoise,^ with the exception that there is no nuchal 
plate; the original specimen giving the authority for the latter feature being 
unfortunately not forthcoming. The length in a straight line of the restored 
carapace is 8 feet 4 inches, and its height 3 feet 5 inches ; the length of the plastron 
1 The suggestion that another type of epiplastron belongs to this species Avill be discussed under the head of the next 
form. 
2 In their first notice Falconer and Cautley {vide “Palaeontological Memoirs,” vol. I. p. 362) considered that some 
portion of the shell was cartilaginous, but this view seems to have been subsequently abandoned. From the evidence of the 
marginal scute noticed below under the name of Oaioileya annuliger it is, however, not improbable that the sutures between 
some of the scutes in this or other Siwalik land -tortoises may have been cartilaginous. 
J1 
