Arkell.1956.Jurassic..

SPITI AND NITI
logical and geological memoirs of the Geological Survey of India bear
witness to the first statement; for the second it is only necessary to recall
that W. Waagen of Munich, a pupil of Oppel's, was entrusted with
monographing the Jurassic fossils of Cutch, that C. L. Griesbach, an
Austrian, became Director of the Survey, that E. Suess of Vienna was
invited to nominate palaeontologists to help collect and to monograph
the classic fauna of Spiti, which thus came to be published by V. Uhlig,
a pupil of Neumayr's at Munich (himself a pupil of Oppel's) and K.
Holdhaus, a pupil of Diener's; while the wealth of Triassic ammonites
was entrusted to Diener and Mojsisovics. The policy, for which stratigraphers
and palaeontologists the world over have cause to be thankful,
was to enlist the best-qualified experts available, irrespective of nationality.
The succession in Spiti and Niti resulting from Uhlig's work (see especially
Uhlig, 1910a, pp. 26-32, with lists) touched up only in mere details,
is as follows:—
Succession in Spiti and Niti
MIDDLE NEOCOMIAN
Giumal Sandstone (up to 150 m.). Flysch facies passing down gradually
into the Spiti Shales. (Giumal is a locality in the Spiti area.)
UPPER TITHONIAN, BERRIASIAN AND VALANGINIAN
Lochambel Beds (Upper Spiti Shales). Black lustrous shales with
fossiliferous concretions, many having an ammonite at the centre. From
these beds come the magnificent ammonites of uppermost Tithonian and
Berriasian age figured in Uhlig's monograph (1903-10), belonging to the
genera Spiticeras, Berriasella, Blanfor dicer as (Cossmann, 1907, = Blan-
Jordia Uhlig, preoccupied), Aulacosphinctes, Paraboliceras, Himalayites,
Kossmatia, Neocomites, Acanthodiscus, Kilianella, Sarasinella, etc., all of
which were founded by Uhlig. The uncoiled genus Bochianites also
occurs. The dating of this and the other parts of the Spiti Shales remains
the same as was established by Nikitin (1889, p. 125) and Waagen before
him (1875), except that Uhlig was the first to recognize the Neocomian
element. Representation of the European Tithonian was recognized
by Zittel as early as 1868.
LOWER TITHONIAN AND UPPER KIMERIDGIAN
Chidamu Beds (Middle Spiti Shales). Black lustrous shales with
numerous black limestone nodules, many of which have an ammonite
at the centre. The lithology is similar to that of the Lochambel Beds but
the fauna is quite different, being overwhelmingly one of Perisphinctids,
especially the genera Virgatosphinctes and Aulacosphinctoides (Uhlig, 1903-10,
pis. xlix-lvi). Among them is V. denseplicatus (Waagen), characteristic
species of the Umia Ammonite Bed in Cutch. In these beds also occur the
few Phylloceratids and Lytoceratids found in Spiti, as well as Oppeliidae
{Uhligites) and Haploceratidae. Future collecting will probably establish
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