Geological Society, London, Special Publications 
The history of dinosaur collecting in central India, 1828 1947 
Matthew T. Carrano, Jeffrey A. Wilson and Paul M. Barrett 
Geological Society, London, Special Publications 2010; v. 343; p. 161-173 
doi:10.1144/SP343.9 
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The history of dinosaur collecting in central India, 1828-1947 
MATTHEW T. CARRANO1*, JEFFREY A. WILSON2 & PAUL M. BARRETT3 
Department of Paleobiology, Smithsonian Institution, P.O. Box 37012, MRC 121, Washington, 
DC 2007.3-7072, T/&4 
Museum of Paleontology and Department of Geological Sciences, University of Michigan, 
7709 Geddea 7?<x%7, A^m Arbor, M7 48709-7079, T/&4 
Department of Palaeontology, The Natural History Museum, Cromwell Road, 
London SW7 5BD, UK 
^Corresponding author (e-mail: carranom?si.edu) 
Abstract: The history of dinosaur collecting in central India (former Central Provinces and 
Central India Agency) began in 1828 when W. H. Sleeman discovered isolated sauropod caudal 
vertebrae in the Lameta Formation near Jabalpur. Subsequently, the area became a focal point 
for fossil collection, leading to a series of further discoveries that continues today. 
The earliest discoveries were made by numerous collectors for whom palaeontology was a sec- 
ondary pursuit, and who were employed in the armed forces (W. H. Sleeman and W. T. Nicolls), 
medicine (G. G. Spilsbury) or as geologists (T. Oldham, H. B. Medlicott, T. W. H. Hughes and 
C. A. Matley). Most of their finds were concentrated around Jabalpur or farther south near 
Pisdura and often consisted of isolated, surface-collected bones. 
Charles Matley undertook the two most extensive collecting efforts, in 1917-1919 and 1932? 
1933 (Percy Sladen Trust Expedition). As a result he discovered significant deposits of dinosaurs 
on Bara Simla and Chhota Simla, revisited Pisdura, and mapped the Lameta Formation. Many new 
dinosaur taxa resulted from Matley' s studies, which still represent most of the known Lameta For- 
mation dinosaur fauna. Current scientific understanding places these fossils among the Sauropoda 
(as titanosaurians) and Theropoda (as abelisaurids and noasaurids). Early reports of armoured 
omithischians were erroneous; these materials also pertain to sauropods and theropods. 
Supplementary material: A list of the archival documents in the Natural History Museum, 
London that were used for this study is available at http://www.geolsoc.org.uk/SUP18418. 
Dinosaur fossils have been collected from the latest the states of Madhya Pradesh and Chhattisgarh 
Cretaceous deposits of central India since the early with portions of neighbouring Maharashtra (Fig. 1). 
nineteenth  century,  beginning  with  a  series  of We  focus  on  this  time  and  place  in  order to 
British soldiers, geologists and amateur naturalists. strengthen the historical and scientific foundation 
This work extended through to Indian indepen- for ongoing palaeontological research throughout 
dence, whence it continues to the present day with the Indian subcontinent. Much of the information 
ongoing    exploration    and    excavation    led   by we present below has been collected from available 
members of the Indian palaeontological community. historical literature, but we also include evidence 
Despite this long history, which begins almost con- from previously unpublished archival sources. The 
temporaneously  with  early   studies  of dinosaur latter include letters, bills of lading and project 
fossils in Europe, the early efforts associated with reports associated with the fieldwork of Charles 
Indian palaeontology have been poorly documen- A. Matley, which are now housed at the Natural 
ted. As a result, important information about the History    Museum,    London.    These    documents 
identities, geological settings and exact geographi- provide important new data concerning collecting 
cal locations of the fossils have been overlooked, efforts, localities and the fossils recovered, 
leading to confusion and debate in the more recent 
scientific literature. Institutional Abbreviations:  AMNH, American 
Here we review the early history of collecting in Museum of Natural  History,  New York,  USA; 
central India, a region consisting of the former GSI, Geological Survey of India, Kolkata, India; 
Central Provinces (1861-1950) and Central India IM, Indian Museum, Kolkata, India; NHM, The 
Agency (1854-1956), and now corresponding to Natural History Museum, London, UK. 
From: MOODY, R. T. J., BUFFETAUT, E., NAISH, D. & MARTILL, D. M. (eds) Dinosaurs and Other Extinct Saurians: A 
Historical Perspective. Geological Society, London, Special Publications, 343, 161-173. 
DOI: 10.1144/SP343.9    0305-8719/10/$15.00 ? The Geological Society of London 2010. 
M. T. CARRANO ETAL 
(b) 
CENTRAL 
INDIA 
AGENCY 
CENTRAL 
PROVINCES 
Fig. 1. Map of India showing location of areas discussed in the text, (a) Map of present-day India showing state 
boundaries; coloured areas represent the pre-independence area of the Central Provinces and Central India Agency, 
(b) 1909 boundaries of the Central Provinces and Central India Agency, showing districts and states (darker 
tones) where palaeontological work took place. Abbreviations: C, Chhattisgarh; M, Maharashtra; MP, Madhya Pradesh. 
Colours: blue, Central Provinces; green, Central India Agency. 
Initial discoveries: 1828-1872 
The first discoveries of dinosaur bones from the 
Indian subcontinent were made by W. H. Sleeman 
in the valley of the Narmada (? Nerbudda, 
Nerbada) River in the early 1800s (Sleeman 
1844). Sleeman, a captain (and eventually a lieute- 
nant colonel) in the Bengal Army, was perhaps 
best known for his pursuit and suppression of the 
thaggi (? thuggee), a cult that practiced robbery 
and murder against travellers. (For these efforts, 
Sleeman is remembered today in the name of the 
village of Sleemanabad.) He also documented a 
long-term interest in natural history in his 
memoirs (Sleeman 1844). Among these, his initial 
discoveries were made just 0.9 km NE of his home 
in Jabalpur (= Jubbulpore) and concerned a 'petri- 
fied forest' in the stratum just below the basalt that 
caps the Jabalpur ridges (now recognized as one of 
the Deccan Traps) (Prinsep 1832). This discovery 
most probably occurred in 1828 (Sleeman 1844), 
although an 1830 date has also been suggested 
(Prinsep 1832; Medlicott 1860). Sleeman also 
found fossil bones with these silicified tree trunks, 
two of which he sent to Dr G. G. Spilsbury, a civil 
surgeon in Jabalpur, who returned to the site and 
procured one additional specimen some time prior 
to 1832 (Prinsep 1832; Spilsbury 1837; Matley 
1921a). Sleeman also visited the Saugor area in 
1830 and discovered a similar deposit of petrified 
tree trunks below the Deccan Traps, but did not 
report any additional bones (Sleeman 1844). 
Spilsbury sent all three specimens to James 
Prinsep in Kolkata in 1832 (Matley 1921a). 
Prinsep, a local antiquarian and the first to translate 
the Brahmi script into English, was unable to ident- 
ify them owing to their poor preservation, although 
he observed that 'the osseous structure of the first 
two is very apparent' (Prinsep 1832, p. 456; see 
also Prinsep 1833). These two bones were then 
passed to Dr Thomas Oldham, the first Director of 
the Geological Survey of India, who brought the 
bones from Jabalpur in 1862, and then to Mr Hugh 
Falconer. Falconer described and illustrated the 
bones, which he recognized to be reptilian caudal 
vertebrae, but this work was not published until 
after his death (Falconer 1868). Richard Lydekker 
(1877) studied the caudal vertebrae and a femur 
(collected by Medlicott from an overlying horizon 
some years later; see later) and made them the 
HISTORY OF INDIAN DINOSAUR COLLECTING 163 
type series of the sauropod dinosaur Titanosaurus 
indicus. The locations of these specimens are now 
unknown, although Lydekker (1888) noted that 
they were originally deposited in the Indian 
Museum, Kolkata. A plaster cast of one caudal ver- 
tebra was presented to the British Museum (Natural 
History) by Falconer in 1867 and survives in the 
Natural History Museum, London as NHM 40867 
(Fig. 2a; Table 1). As the original specimens 
cannot be located, this cast should be regarded as 
a plastotype for this species. 
The Saugor area was visited again in the 1850s 
by W. T. Nicolls, a captain in the Madras Army 
(Matley in Huene & Matley 1933), who reported 
finding two fossiliferous localities near the village 
of Narayanpur (? Narrainpore). One site produced 
mostly fossil wood but also a fragment of bone. At 
the second locality Nicholls described 'fragments 
of large bones strewed on the surface of the black 
regur soil', at least one of which preserved the 
concave face of a vertebral centrum (Carter 1854, 
p. 322). Medlicott (1860, p. 199) identified these 
Fig. 2. Representative fossil specimens collected from the Late Cretaceous beds of central India, 1848-1933. 
(a) Plaster cast of syntypic caudal vertebra of Titanosaurus indicus (plastotype, NHM 40867). (b) Holotype tooth 
of Massospondylus rawesi (NHM R 4190), showing enlargement of serrated posterior carina. (c) Titanosaur caudal 
vertebra (NHM R902). (d) Coprolite from Pisdura (NHM uncatalogued, 'specimen 66'). Scale bars: (a) 5 cm; and 
(b)-(d) 1 cm. 
164 M. T. CARRANO ETAL 
Table 1. Chronology of dinosaur expeditions in central India by year and district, 1828-1947, with specimens 
known to have been collected 
Collector(s)        Year(s) Locality Specimen(s) Current status 
Sleeman, 1828-1832 Jabalpur 
Spilsbury 
Nicolls 1850s Saugor 
Rawes pre-1859 Takli 
Blanford pre-1859 Pisdura 
Hislop pre-1859 Pisdura 
Medlicott 
Hughes 
Matley 1917 
1871-1872    Jabalpur 
Karhayia 
1870s Pisdura 
Jabalpur 
Two sauropod caudal 
vertebrae 
Vertebral centrum 
Theropod tooth 
Two sauropod vertebrae 
Coprolites, turtle 
carapace 
Dinosaur femur, 
vertebrae; molluscs; 
coprolites 
Two turtle carapaces 
Sauropod femur 
Large vertebrate remains 
Dinosaur bones, 
coprolites, shells 
Numerous sauropod and 
theropod specimens 
1919 Jabalpur Second theropod 
Lameta 
Chat 
Sauropod 
1920 Pisdura Coprolites, turtle, 
mollusc, sauropod 
caudals 
Panchgaon Sauropod caudal 
vertebra 
Brown 1922 Bara Simla Theropod skull, 
titanosaur osteoderm 
Das-Gupta 1924 Bara Simla Theropod tooth 
Matley 1932 Jabalpur 
Pisdura 
Sauropod, theropod, 
plants 
Sauropod caudal 
vertebrae; coprolites 
1933 Rewa State Dinosaurs 
Chhota Associated titanosaur 
Simla 
Amakhoh 
postcrania 
Dinosaur limb bones 
Types, Titanosaurus indicus (GSI/IM, 
lost; cast, NHM 40867) 
Bombay Branch, Asiatic Society (lost) 
Type, Massospondylus rawesi 
(NHM R4190) 
Type, Titanosaurus blanfordi (GSI), 
cf. Laplatasaurus madagascariensis 
(GSI) 
Lost 
Lost 
Hydraspis leithi (unknown; cast, 
NHM R1728) 
cf. Antarctosaurus sp. (GSI 1(22/754) 
Unknown 
Unknown 
Titanosaurus indicus; types, 
Lametasaurus indicus (GSI), 
Antarctosaurus septentrionalis, 
Coeluroides largus, 
Compsosuchus solus, 
Dryptosauroides grandis, 
Indosaurus matleyi, 
Indosuchus raptorius, 
Jubbulpuria tenuis, 
Laevisuchus indicus, 
Ornithomimoides (?) barasimlensis, 
Ornithomimoides mobilis (all GSI; 
see Huene & Matley 1933 for 
specimen numbers) 
Unknown; possibly refers to one of 
the taxa above 
Unknown 
Titanosaurus blanfordi (unknown) 
Titanosaurus blanfordi (unknown) 
cf. Indosuchus (AMNH 1753, 
1955, 1960), titanosaur (AMNH 
1959) 
Type, Orthogoniosaurus matleyi 
(unknown) 
Unknown 
NHM R5920-R5921; R12377-R12378 
(also many unregistered bones and 
coprolites) 
Unknown 
NHM R5903, R5931-R5933, R5935, 
16481 
Unknown 
HISTORY OF INDIAN DINOSAUR COLLECTING 165 
bones as mammalian, and mentioned the similarities 
between the beds at Narayanpur and those at 
Jabalpur: 
a similar bed is found ... covered by a trap ... colossal 
vertebrate bones, are embedded in the calcareous bed. 
These bones are much too broken for identification. 
They are supposed to have belonged to large Pachy- 
derms, or possibly to cetacea. 
The vertebra was favourably compared to the saur- 
opod vertebrae later discovered at Pisdura (Hislop 
1861, p. 190). These materials were collected and 
brought to the Bombay Branch of the Asiatic 
Society, but could not be found when requested by 
Charles Matley in 1925 (Matley in Huene & 
Matley 1933, p. 6) and are now presumed lost. 
Three additional collections were made in the 
years prior to 1859 but, unfortunately, their specific 
dates are not recorded. Among the earliest of these 
was the discovery by Mr Rawes of a single dinosaur- 
ian tooth in the Nagpur area, Maharashtra. Although 
it was originally reported to have come from the 
intertrappean Takli Beds (Hislop 1861, 1864), 
which were at the time considered to be Eocene in 
age, Lydekker (1879, 1890) suggested that the 
tooth actually came from the underlying infratrap- 
pean Lameta Beds. Lydekker (1879, 1890) recog- 
nized the theropod affinities of the tooth, but 
considered it to be most similar to 'anchisaurid' 
teeth of Thecodontosaurus and Massospondylus 
(then thought to be theropods). This specimen was 
named Massospondylus rawesi by Lydekker 
(1890). Although the tooth can now be identified 
as a theropod (and resembles those of abelisaurids), 
it bears no diagnostic features that allow its referral 
to an existing or novel theropod genus (Fig. 2b). 
Second came the first reported discoveries at 
Pisdura (= Phisdura, Phizdura, Pijdura), about 
320 km from Jabalpur, in Chanda (now Chandrapur) 
District. Here, W. T. Blanford collected two sauro- 
pod dinosaur vertebrae that were later described 
by Lydekker as the type of Titanosaurus blanfordi 
(Lydekker 1879), although the smaller of the two 
was later referred to as cf. Laplatasaurus madagas- 
cariensis by Huene (1929, p. 39). Lydekker (1877, 
p. 41) also mentioned 'a considerable series of 
caudal vertebrae', along with coprolites and a 
turtle carapace, but none of these materials were 
ever described in detail, and their current where- 
abouts are not known. This was the first mention 
of coprolites from Pisdura. 
Third, and subsequent to Blanford's visit, the 
Reverend Stephen Hislop also collected at Pisdura 
(Hislop 1860). Importantly, he noted a very 
similar arrangement of the beds to what had been 
observed at Jabalpur: 'On the west side of Phizdura, 
which is only 3 miles E.S.E. Of Mangali, there is 
a hill of trap ... It also overlies a fossiliferous 
deposit' (Hislop 1860, p. 163). Hislop was also the 
first to observe that most of the fossils were found 
as surface materials in a nearby field. His collection 
included vertebrae and a femur from a large dino- 
saur, in association with a tooth, a fish vertebra, a 
turtle plastron, and typical Lameta Formation mol- 
luscs and coprolites ('some of them huge enough': 
Hislop 1864, p. 282). Hislop originally considered 
the large bones to be mammalian ('Pachyderms': 
Hislop 1860, p. 163). They were too heavy to ship, 
but he made drawings in order to permit them to 
be studied by Falconer, who identified them as rep- 
tilian (Hislop 1861, 1864). Unfortunately, many of 
Hislop's notes were only published posthumously 
(Hislop 1864). Although most of the specimens 
were not seen by Lydekker during his time in 
India just a few years later (he noted, I do not at 
all know what has become of the specimens col- 
lected by Mr Hislop': Lydekker 1879, p. 24), he 
eventually described the turtle carapace and referred 
it to Hydraspis leithi (Lydekker 1890). 
Between 1871 and 1872 H. B. Medlicott con- 
ducted a study of the 'infratrappean' rocks of the 
Jabalpur District, and documented the presence of 
vertebrate bones at both Jabalpur and 65 km to the 
WSW at Karhayia (= Kareia) (Medlicott 1872). At 
Jabalpur he collected an approximately 1.3 m-long 
sauropodfemur (GSIK22/754), originally made part 
of the type series of Titanosaurus indicus (Lydekker 
1877) but later removed to cf. Antarctosaurus sp. 
(Huene & Matley 1933, p. 29). Below Kareia, in 
the bed of the Sher River, Medlicott noted the pres- 
ence of 'large vertebrate remains, though scarcely 
perfect enough for identification' that had 'weath- 
ered from beneath the trap' (Medlicott 1872, 
p. 119). Huene & Matley (1933) noted that these 
fossils probably came from the Greensand Zone. 
At about the same time geologist T. W. H. 
Hughes followed upon Hislop's report and visited 
the Pisdura site, which he noted occurred in a field 
at the southern end of Pisdura Hill. The fossils 
were found as surface float, as they continue to be 
today, 'having been turned up by the ploughing of 
the land' (Hughes 1877). Hughes noted the presence 
of shells, coprolites and bones, specifically mention- 
ing among the latter both limbs and vertebrae. 
Subsequent to these reports and the works of 
Richard Lydekker, no further collecting in the 
Central Provinces appears to have been reported 
for nearly 45 years. 
Expeditions of Charles A. Matley: 
1917-1933 
First expeditions, 1917-1924 
A second, renewed phase of collecting began with 
Charles   Matley,   a   British   geologist   and   field 
166 M. T. CARRANO ETAL 
Fig. 3. Charles A. Matley. Photograph courtesy of NHM 
Archives. 
officer based at the Geological Survey of India 
(Fig. 3). His first discoveries came in October 
1917 during a visit to Jabalpur. There, on the 
western slope of Bara Simla, he found numerous 
remains of sauropod and theropod dinosaurs 
(Table 1) (Matley 1921a, b). Further excavation 
revealed that these remains came from two speci- 
mens in two different layers: a sauropod tentatively 
identified as Titanosaurus indicus in 'a red and 
green marly clay about 4 feet above the lower lime- 
stone'; and a smaller theropod from a slightly lower 
'soft greenish sandstone at the base of the lower 
limestone' (Matley 1918, pp. clxxxvi-clxxxvii). 
Matley termed these two beds the Ossiferous 
Conglomerate and the Carnosaur Bed, respectively 
(Matley 1921a; Huene & Matley 1933); the latter 
would eventually produce abundant remains of 
large and small theropods, as well as sauropods 
(Fig. 4) (Huene & Matley 1933). 
In February 1919 Matley travelled NE of 
Jabalpur to prospect the surrounding Lameta For- 
mation outcrops. This 2-week trip took him as far 
as the Mahanadi River, about 65 km away (Fig. 5). 
For transport, he relied primarily on camels 
(Matley unpublished Second Percy Sladen Trust 
Expedition (PSTE) Report). He also revisited the 
Bara Simla site in early 1919, where he found a 
second theropod specimen in the upper (sauropod- 
bearing) layer. The material consisted of 'two 
teeth, three ribs, and a vertebra' (Matley 1919, pp. 
cxcviii-cxcix). 
Some of the preparation of these materials 
was accomplished in the field, primarily thanks 
to the work of Durgansankar Bhattacharji from 
the Indian Geological Survey (Matley in Huene 
& Matley 1933, p. 1). Bhattacharji worked exten- 
sively with Matley through many field seasons and 
provided important field expertise for his work, in 
addition to discovering several important dinosaur 
specimens at Bara Simla and Chhota Simla 
(Matley 1921a, pp. 155-156). Bhattacharji also 
kept extensive notes on the disposition and locations 
of the bones at these sites, but unfortunately his 
notebook has not been located (Matley letter to 
Bather dated 31 March 1921). 
Matley realized that a more detailed appreciation 
of the geology of the Jabalpur area was needed and 
visited the type section of the Lameta beds at 
Lameta Ghat in October 1919 for this purpose. 
There he surface-collected dinosaur bones (mostly 
sauropod) at many sites, but also noted several in 
situ at Amakhoh, Kothi, and south of Sagona 
(Fig. 5) (Matley 1921a). 
Matley made 'a hurried visit' to Pisdura in 1920, 
where he found fossils similar to those previously 
noted in a ploughed field east of the village 
(Matley 1921a, p. 161). These included large copro- 
lites, part of a turtle and numerous molluscs, as well 
as a series of six caudal vertebrae that he assigned to 
Titanosaurus blanfordi (Table 1; Fig. 2c, d). With 
them he associated a tibia, a metacarpal and possible 
scapula. On the east side of an outlier hill, south of 
the village of Panchgaon, he reported the presence 
of another caudal vertebra of T. blanfordi (Matley 
1921a, p. 161). Matley also visited nearby Dongar- 
gaon, but did not report finding any fossils and ques- 
tioned whether the beds might be younger than the 
type Lameta strata (Matley letter to Bather dated 
31 March 1921). 
Most of the Bara Simla sauropod bones 
remained in India, but the majority of other speci- 
mens (including many theropod materials) were 
sent to London in two shipments, the cost of 
which was borne by the Government of India 
(Matley letter to Bather dated 20 May 1925). The 
first was sent in 1922 (exact date unknown, but 
it must have preceded Matley's 1923 writing of 
the description of Lametasaurus, as it is mentioned 
therein), and probably included the type of Indosu- 
chus and those portions of the type materials of 
Laevisuchus, Jubbulpuria, Dryptosauroides and 
Ornithomimoides mobilis bearing 'K20' Geological 
Survey of India (GSI) catalogue numbers. The 
second shipment was made in April 1925; a list of 
HISTORY OF INDIAN DINOSAUR COLLECTING 167 
Fig. 4. (a) Geological map of the Jabalpur region, showing Lameta Formation outcrops at Chui Hill, Chhota Simla, and 
Bara Simla; scale bar, 1 km (modified from Matley 1921a). (b) Geological profile of the Lameta Formation at Jabalpur 
(modified from Huene & Matley 1933 by the addition of colours corresponding to strata in the main map). 
these specimens includes both 'K20' and 'K22' GSI 
catalogue numbers, but no additional type speci- 
mens. These materials were received at the British 
Museum (Natural History) by A. S. Woodward, 
Keeper of the Geological Department. It is not 
known whether the remaining types from Bara 
Simla (those with 'K27' numbers) remained perma- 
nently in India or were sent to England for study as 
part of later shipments (see the subsection on 'Percy 
Sladen Trust expedition, 1932-1933' later). 
In 1922 Barnum Brown visited India on an 
extensive tour, during which he married his wife 
Lilian (Brown 1950). He visited Matley's Bara 
Simla site, and while there collected several thero- 
pod specimens and a large osteoderm for the Amer- 
ican Museum of Natural History (AMNH) (Table 1) 
(Huene & Matley 1933; Chatterjee 1978; Novas 
et at 2004). This latter element was initially ident- 
ified as the tail club of an armoured dinosaur 
(Huene & Matley 1933; Coombs 1978), but it has 
recently been reinterpreted as a titanosaur osteo- 
derm (Chatterjee & Rudra 1996; D'Emic et al. 
2009). Although it has not been explicitly men- 
tioned before, a letter from Matley to W. D. Lang 
(16 December 1932) makes it clear that Brown 
was working at the same site, and in the same bed, 
as the one that produced the original Bara Simla 
theropod materials: [t]he deposits at Jubbulpore 
seem to be worked out (Barnum Brown exploited 
my Carnosaur Bed since I was last there)'. This 
information casts doubt on the supposed associ- 
ations between the elements collected by Brown 
(Chatterjee 1978) and indicates that they have the 
same likelihood of being associated as any of the 
other Carnosaur Bed specimens. 
The first dinosaur to be described from Bara 
Simla was Lametasaurus indicus, first thought to 
be a theropod (Matley 1918, 1921a, pp. 154-155) 
and then a species of the stegosaur Omosaurus 
(Fig. 6) (Matley letter to Andrews dated 26 
August 1922), but eventually given its own genus 
name (Matley 1924). Matley completed the paper 
while working as a geologist in Jamaica and asked 
C. W. Andrews of the British Museum (Natural 
History) to submit it on his behalf. After some 
delay it was issued in 1924 in the volume for 1923 
of the Records of the Geological Survey of India 
(Matley letter to Woodward dated 23 February 
1924). Although Matley now considered Lameta- 
saurus to be a stegosaur, having associated it with 
the numerous small osteoderms also found at the 
site, it was later re-identified as a theropod by 
16* 
(a) 
M. T. CARRANO ETAL. 
(C) 
Bijjoin f~J      Silond 
Sagona 
QDQ      ?Koto? 
D Dadorgaon 
a Pinoora o Ghungh uti Lakhanpura 
"Kundam 
Chhota Simla 
Bora Simla ^/J*X &-**? 
Fig. 5. Travels of C. A. Matley in central India, 1917-1933. (a) Outline map of the Central Provinces, with boxes 
showing location and size of inset maps of the Chandrapur (b) and Jabaplur (c) regions, (b) Chanda district 
(Chandrapur); scale bar, 2 km. (c) Jabalpur region (Jabalpur and western Rewa districts); scale bar, 10 km. Symbols: 
squares, 1917-1919; circles, PSTE, 1932-1933; open symbols, dinosaur-producing sites; closed symbols, 
non-dinosaurian fossils only. Base maps for (b) and (c) ? 2008 Yahoo, Inc. 
D. K. Chakravarti of the Geological Museum at 
Banares (Benares) Hindu University (Chakravarti 
1934, 1935). The whereabouts of the type series of 
Lametasaurus, which includes a sacrum, ilia, tibia 
and osteoderms, are no longer known. 
Bara Simla was next visited by H. C. Das-Gupta, 
who led a group of students from Presidency 
College (Kolkata) to the site in 1924. The 'small 
collection' made by Das-Gupta included a sin- 
gle theropod tooth, which he made the type of 
Orthogoniosaurus matleyi (Das-Gupta 1930) and 
placed in the family Anchisauridae (Thecodonto- 
sauridae); at that time this family was considered 
to represent a group of small carnivorous dinosaurs. 
Huene & Matley (1933, p. 59) did not consider the 
tooth 'sufficiently diagnostic' to serve as the basis 
of a new genus, although the tooth does resemble 
those of abelisaurid theropods. 
Finally, Matley made a 2-day trip to Narayanpur 
in March 1925 to the site originally discovered by 
HISTORY OF INDIAN DINOSAUR COLLECTING 169 
I <t**?.Mth**ji 
t-*f% f**~#*to /t^ tii. 
Fig. 6. Letter from C. A. Matley to C. W. Andrews dated 26 August 1922. Courtesy of NHM Archives. 
Nicolls but was unsuccessful in locating any new 
materials (Matley in Huene & Matley 1933, p. 6). 
Matley published a comprehensive study of the 
dinosaurs from central India in collaboration with 
F. von Huene (Huene & Matley 1933) in which 
they documented the prior history of dinosaur col- 
lecting in the region and described several new 
taxa. Among these were nine theropods and one 
sauropod in addition to the previously described 
Lametasaurus and new specimens of Titanosaurus 
indicus. These materials have been studied numer- 
ous times in the succeeding decades (e.g. Walker 
1964; Chatterjee 1978), and, although many are 
now considered nomina dubia, nearly all the speci- 
mens appear to represent abelisaurid and noasaurid 
theropods and titanosaurian sauropods (Wilson & 
Upchurch 2003; Novas et al. 2004; Carrano & 
Sampson 2008). 
Percy Sladen Trust expedition, 1932-1933 
With his promising initial results, Matley applied 
for funds from the Percy Sladen Trust on 22 April 
1932 (Matley letter to Swinton dated 30 April 
1932), which he was awarded in November 1932 
(Trustees' minutes, October-November 1932). In 
addition to ?200 from the Trust, he also received 
?48 15s from the Gloyne Fund, ?50 from the 
British Museum (Natural History) Purchase Fund, 
and he utilized logistical support from the Geologi- 
cal Survey of India in the form of field assistant 
A. M. N. Ghosh, as well as c. ?100 from his per- 
sonal funds (Matley letters to Swinton dated 30 
April 1932; Lang 15 October 1932; NHM Director 
enclosed with letter to Lang dated 15 January 
1935). These resources enabled him to make 
several trips to Jabalpur, Pisdura and the surround- 
ing areas over a period of 5 months, from 18 
November 1932 to 17 April 1933 under the Percy 
Sladen Trust Expedition (PSTE) (Fig. 5; Table 2). 
The PSTE began with a week of work at the 
sites Matley had already discovered at Bara Simla 
and Chhota Simla. These sites produced numerous 
sauropod and theropod materials as well as fossil 
plants. 
The next 2 weeks were spent in Chanda district, 
at Pisdura and Warora. The visit to Pisdura 
(December   1932)  revealed  that  fossil  materials 
170 M. T. CARRANO ETAL 
Table 2. Chronology, locations and specimens associated with C. A. Matley 's explorations under the Percy 
Sladen Trust Expedition, 1932-1933 
Dates District/ 
state 
Location(s) Material(s) 
28 November-8 Jabalpur Bara Simla, Chhota Simla Titanosaur and theropod (at least 
December 1932 seven specimens), plants 
9-21 December Chandrapur Pisdura Coprolites, turtle, titanosaur, 
1932 theropod, molluscs 
Warora Dinosaur limb, fish scales, 
gastropods, cyprinids 
22-24 December Jabalpur Jabalpur (return via Chanda) None listed 
1932 
3 January-6 Rewa Obra, Munda, Bhundi, Pali None 
February 1933 (Birsinghpur) 
Kouria (near Jogin; Machrar Plants 
6-8 February 
1933; 14 
February-17 
April 1933 
9-13 February 
1933 
Weekend trip, 
1933 
Jabalpur 
Jabalpur 
Narsinghpur 
Nadi, at Bansa) 
Chandia (nulla near Jhala; 
Barwar, 3.25 km SSE) 
Pali (south of Maliagura) 
Ghunghuti (on Kachodhar road) 
Lakhanpura (SE) 
Changera 
Pinaora 
Umaria (railway cutting near 
Narsaha nulla) 
Chhota Simla 
Bara Simla 
Amakhoh 
Karhayia 
Plants 
Probable rib fragments 
Two large bones, limb fragment 
Bone fragment 
Limnaea, Paludina, Bullinus 
Limnaea, Paludina, Bullinus 
Spiriferidae, Productus 
Titanosaur, theropod, scutes (160 
specimens total) 
Plants, including cycads 
Limb bones, lamellibranchs 
Plants 
Note: Dates and locations primarily from Matley's unpublished Second PSTE Report; see Figure 5 for the map. 
could be found at several localities, not just the orig- 
inal site discovered by Hislop. According to Matley: 
[t]his distribution suggested that the fossils were 
derived from below. Two of the richest localities 
were selected for excavation and trial holes were also 
made at other favourable spots, but in no case did the 
undisturbed Lameta clay produce a single fossil. As 
two of the localities lay at the foot of a slope capped 
by an outlier of Deccan Trap two trenches were dug 
up the slope as far as the Trap, but in neither case did 
they reveal a bone or mollusc in situ. 
(Matley unpublished Interim PSTE Report, 
1 January 1933) 
Matley believed that 'four species and probably 
three genera of Titanosaurs' were present at 
Pisdura (Matley unpublished Interim PSTE 
Report), including T. blanfordi, cf. T. indicus, 7Ant- 
arctosaurus sp. and cf. Laplatasaurus madagascar- 
iensis. At Warora, he discovered a dinosaur limb 
bone, numerous gastropods and cyprids, and fish 
scales (Matley unpublished Interim PSTE Report). 
Matley returned to Jabalpur and explored the 
surrounding area of the district in early January 
1933, but reported finding no fossils. He then 
embarked on an extensive tour of Rewa State, 
where he discovered fossil plants and several depos- 
its containing molluscs. He found fragmentary dino- 
saur bones at Pali, Ghunghuti and Lakhanpura, but 
none were well enough preserved to be identified. 
Returning to Jabalpur district on 14 February 
1933, Matley soon discovered a new dinosaur 
bone bed on the SE face of the nearby Chhota 
Simla hill. The site included an associated titanosaur 
skeleton, as well as other sauropod and theropod 
materials (Matley letter to Lang dated 9 March 
1933). This discovery necessitated a re-evaluation 
of the field schedule, such that Matley eventually 
decided to extend his trip by several weeks, from 
24 March to 21 April (Matley letters to Lang 
dated 23 February and 9 March 1933). 
This extension permitted a brief trip to Amakhoh 
and a weekend visit to Karhayia. At Amakhoh, 
Matley discovered six or seven incomplete limb 
HISTORY OF INDIAN DINOSAUR COLLECTING 171 
bones, which, although poorly preserved, were 
apparently more abundant than anywhere in the 
vicinity aside from Jabalpur. Nothing was found at 
Karhayia aside from plant fossils (Matley unpub- 
lished Second PSTE Report). 
Matley was unable to utilize camels for travel 
during most of the PSTE. However, he noted that 
most of the Jabalpur villages could now be 
reached by 'bullock carts' and used these as a 
means of transport, in addition to motor vehicles 
where it was possible to so do (Matley unpublished 
Second PSTE Report). He did obtain camels once in 
Rewa State, but as these were all females and most 
were pregnant they proved unsatisfactory and were 
'discharged' before reaching Patpara. 
The materials collected under the PSTE were 
sent to London in two shipments for preparation 
and study. The first consisted of 11 packages, pri- 
marily Pisdura specimens, held under the care of 
the Director of the Geological Survey of India in 
Kolkata. These were shipped through the Calcutta 
branch of Mackinnon Mackenzie on the British 
India cargo vessel S.S. Lahore on 9 May 1933 and 
were received at the British Museum (Natural 
History) in June (Swinton letter to Matley dated 
28 June 1933). The second shipment consisted of 
25 packages of Jabalpur material left in the care of 
the Superintendent of the Gun Carriage Factory 
(Jabalpur). These were sent by mail to Mackinnon 
Mackenzie in Mumbai, repacked into 18 boxes, 
shipped via sea and received at the British 
Museum (Natural History) in July (Swinton letter 
to Matley dated 20 July 1933). 
Matley also returned to England, on the S.S. 
Mashobra from Kolkata via Madras and Marseilles 
(Matley letters to Lang dated 9 March and 25 April 
1933), and took up residence at Barmouth, North 
Wales, before removing to Leamington Spa. His 
Indian materials were eventually prepared in 
London. Some were exhibited at a 'Conversazione' 
held at the Geological Society of London on 3 July 
1935, including the Chhota Simla titanosaur limb 
and several Pisdura coprolites (Matley letters to 
Lang dated 17 May, 10 June and 10 August 1935). 
Matley also delivered a lecture on his experiences 
hunting dinosaur bones in India to the Geological 
Association on 3 January 1936 (Matley letter to 
Swinton dated 16 December 1935). 
It was Matley's intention to work on the Pisdura 
coprolites himself. He intended for some materials 
to remain permanently in London, and 'as regards 
the remainder the Geological Survey of India 
should have the first choice' (Matley letter to Lang 
dated 19 June 1933). In addition, Matley requested 
that casts be made of the materials for distribution 
to various Indian museums, including a full set of 
casts for the Indian Museum in Kolkata, and a 
smaller collection of casts representing particularly 
important finds for the Nagpur Museum (Matley 
letter to Lang dated 8 January 1935). These appear 
to have been done as requested, based on mention 
of their shipments (Swinton letter to Matley dated 
3 June 1936). 
Nearly all of the Indian materials sent to the 
British Museum (Natural History) appear to have 
been returned in a single shipment, which left the 
museum on 30 June 1936 (NHM Archives, file DF 
110/4, Boxes Despatched Book No. 4). In a letter 
to Matley (23 May 1936), Swinton informed him 
that the museum had packed 'practically all your 
material', including 'type specimens etc. (ver- 
tebrates)'. As no type specimens were erected 
from the PSTE finds, this statement can only refer 
to the type materials from Matley's 1917-1919 
expeditions. Although not specified, we infer that 
this must have included Lametasaurus and some 
(or all) of the other theropod types from Bara 
Simla, which Matley refers to as having been 
shipped to London (Matley 1924). This shipment 
also included casts of specimens for the Indian 
Museum (Swinton letter to Matley dated 3 June 
1930- 
This left only a few specimens in the permanent 
care of the Natural History Museum, London. 
Among them is the associated titanosaur hind limb 
from Chhota Simla, which was described as Titano- 
saurus indicus by Swinton (1947). These materials 
are now under restudy by the present authors, and 
details of their discovery and history will be 
presented elsewhere. 
Summary and conclusions 
Although the early discoveries of dinosaurs from 
India have often been mentioned in palaeontological 
literature, there has been some confusion and lack 
of clarity regarding the ordering of events, the 
specific materials collected and their localities, 
and the present disposition of specimens. Our 
recent archival research helps to enlighten these 
aspects of several important chapters in Indian 
palaeontology. 
It is now clear that several different collectors 
were active in the latter half of the nineteenth 
century, but that many of the materials they col- 
lected are now lost. In addition, the Bara Simla 
and Chhota Simla sites, near Jabalpur, have held a 
central role in Indian dinosaur palaeontology since 
its beginnings. Although Richard Lydekker is 
often noted for his extensive work with Indian 
fossils, most of the materials he studied were 
found by a variety of collectors. 
In the early twentieth century Charles Matley 
was instrumental in amassing the largest and most 
scientifically   important   collection   of  dinosaurs 
172 M. T. CARRANO ETAL. 
from India prior to 1947. His contributions, some 
only recently recognized, include an associated tita- 
nosaur skeleton, the first dinosaur bone bed from the 
subcontinent and the earliest-discovered noasaurid 
remains. His expeditions also marked an important 
example of long-term collaboration between British 
and Indian scientists. 
With the onset of Indian independence from 
Great Britain, dinosaur palaeontology in India 
became a predominately national affair. The sub- 
sequent decades have seen the field grow in size 
and scope, but the initial discovery localities of 
Jabalpur and Pisdura remain important. Today 
new collections and discoveries are made regularly, 
and the Indian dinosaur record holds a significant 
place in the study of dinosaur evolution, extinction 
and biogeography. 
We are grateful to several people at the Natural History 
Museum, London, for their assistance during the research 
for this paper, including Mrs P. Parry and Mr J. Hatton 
(NHM Archives) for access to archival materials, and Mr 
P. Crabb (NHM Image Resources) for specimen photogra- 
phy. The present manuscript was improved thanks to the 
helpful comments of Dr S. Chatterjee and Dr G. V. R. 
Prasad. This project was funded in part by a grant from 
the Special Funds of the NHM (awarded to P. M. 
Barrett). Additional thanks are given to the staff of the 
Smithsonian Libraries (Natural Museum of Natural 
History) for their help in acquiring copies of several 
obscure references. 
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