86 
[VOL. X. 
Records of the Geological Survey of India. 
Oxfordian. In any case, however, the Chari beds must be considered newer than the Trias 
and the Rhsetic, and the occurrence of a (probably) Parasuchian Crocodile in these beds 
somewhat does away with the value of that group as characteristic of the Trias or Rhsetic. 
I may here mention that the occurrence of the remains of a fresli-water Crocodile in 
the marine Chari group is paralleled hy the occurrence of the estuarine Teleosauri in the 
marine Lias of Whitby ; its presence serves to indicate that the Chari beds were deposited in 
a sea not far removed from the estuary of some large river. 
Having now defined the affinities of our Denwa scute, and noticed the position of other 
allied forms in the Indian rock-series, we may turn our attention to consider whether it 
affords us any assistance in fixing the homotaxis of the rocks in which it occurs, during 
which we shall be led also to consider the age of the Kota-Maleri beds. Prom the great simi¬ 
larity of structure between the Denwa scute and the scutes of Parasuch us from the Kota- 
Maleri group, with the scutes of the European genus Belodon, I am inclined to think that 
the horizons in which these three forms occur cannot he very far removed in time ; and, 
therefore, that the period of deposition of the two Indian groups must be somewhere near 
that of the upper Trias or Rhsetic of Europe in which Belodon occurs. 
We may here consider somewhat more closely the range in time of the vertebrates 
of the Ivota-Maleri group ; firstly, we find that the group of Crocodiliu, Amphiccelia, which 
embraces the minor division of the Parasuchia, ranges in Europe from the upper Trias to the 
Chalk, and is therefore characteristic of the greater part of the Mesozoic period ; the smaller 
divisions of Parasuchia, which in Europe includes the two genera Belodon and Stagonolepis 
according to Professor Huxley,* is in that region confined to the Trias. Dr. Feistmantel, 
however, tells me that some of the beds in which Belodon occurs are now classed as Rhsetic. 
In addition to Parasuclms, the Kota-Maleri beds have also yielded remains of Hyper- 
odapedon, which seems probably to belong to the Rhynocephala, and which in Europe is 
confined to the Triassie period. Prom the same deposits we also have three genera of fish—- 
Ceratodus, Lepidotus, and 2Echmodus,; the first of these three is represented hy the 
greatest number of species in the Trias of Europe, and is not known before that period ; it 
is, however, found again in the Oolites of Stonesfield, and a solitary surviving species still 
lingers on in some of the rivers of Queensland. The genus Lepidotus in Europe ranges 
from the Lias to the lower Chalk, but is most common in the former period; the species 
described hy Sir Phillip Egerton from the Kota beds of Hyderabad in the Journal of the 
Geological Society for 1851 is said to be most nearly allied to the oldest English forms; the 
genns undoubtedly belongs to a primitive type of fish ; the genus lEelvmedus iu Europe is 
exclusively Liassic. 
The following table represents the distribution of the above-mentioned genera 
Eueope. 
India. 
F 
Trias. Rhast. Lias. Oolite. Cret. 
Kota. Denwa. 
'Belodon 
X 
X 
... 
... ... ... 
Parasuchia . • 
Parasuchus ... 
^Stagonolepis 
... X 
... .. X 
X 
Rhynocephala 
Hyperodapedon 
... x 
... ... X 
'Ceratodus ... 
... x 
x (living) x 
Pisces ... 
Lepidotus ... 
X 
XXX 
,/Echmodus ... 
X 
... ... X 
Quar. Jour. Geol. Soc., 1875, p. 49. 
