In the Indian subcontinent, early Tertiary continental vertebrates have long been known from the upper part of the Subathu Formation (early Middle Eocene, ca. 47 Ma) of the Kalakot area in the state of Jammu and Kashmir, and from its type section near Subathu, Himachal Pradesh (Kumar 2000 and references therein); from the early Middle Eocene Kuldana Formation of northern Pakistan (Thewissen et al. 2001), and from the Lower Eocene coal-bearing Ghazij Formation of Baluchistan, western Pakistan (Gingerich et al. 1997, 1998, 2001). More recently, continental vertebrate-yielding horizons have been discovered in Lower Eocene deposits (Cambay Shale) in the lignite mines of District Surat, Gujarat state, western India (Figure 1). Initially known from fish remains (Samant and Bajpai 2001, Bajpai and Kapur 2004, Rana et al. 2004), the vertebrate fauna recovered from these mines, particularly that from Vastan, is diverse and now represented by amphibians, lizards, snakes, crocodiles, turtles, birds and mammals (Bajpai et al. 2005a, b, c, Rana et al. 2005, Bajpai et al. 2006a, Kapur 2006, Rose et al. 2006, Das, 2007, Mayr et al. 2007, Smith et al. 2007, collections under study at IIT, Roorkee). Until now, only the mammalian fauna of the Vastan Lignite Mine has been described in detail (Bajpai et al. 2005a, b, c, Rana et al. 2005, Bajpai et al. 2006a, Rose et al. 2006, Smith et al. 2007). The placental mammal fauna of this site includes cambaythere perissodactyls (Cambaytherium bidens, C. thewissi, C. minor, Cambaytherium sp. A, Kalitherium marinus), dichobunid artiodactyls (Gujaratia indica), palaeoryctids (Anthraryctes vastanensis), cimolestids (Suratalestes gingerichi), apatemyids (Frugivastodon cristatus), insectivores (Vastania sahnia), adapiform and omomyid primates (Marcgodinotius indicus and Vastanomys gracilis) and chiropterans (Icaronycteris, Protonycteris, Archaeonycteris?, Hassianycteris, Cambaya). Additional mammalian faunas, comprising hyaenodontids, tapiromorphs, primates, rodents, condylarths and insectivores, have been described by Kapur (2006) and Das (2007).

The terrestrial vertebrate-bearing strata from Vastan have been dated as Lower Eocene (Middle Ypresian, ca. 52 Ma), based on the presence of the benthic foraminifer Nummulites burdigalensis (Bajpai and Kapur 2004, Rana et al. 2005). N. burdigalensis forms part of the Shallow Benthic Zone 10, corresponding to the planktic foraminiferal zone P6 (in part) and P7 of Serra-Kiel et al. (1998). However, recent work on Vastan foraminifers (Saravanan 2007; see also Bajpai et al. 2007) suggests that the species previously identified as N. burdigalensis may actually pertain to N. globulus. More importantly, dinoflagellate cysts, though rare in the Vastan samples, include two temporally significant taxa: Muratodinium fimbriatum and Hystrichosphaeridium tubiferum (V. Prasad and R. Garg, personal commun., Birbal Sahni Institute of Palaeobotany, Lucknow, India; see Bajpai et al. 2006b). Considered together, the benthic foraminifer and dinoflagellate data suggest a somewhat older age (Early Ypresian, ca. 53.5 Ma) for the Vastan vertebrates, making it the oldest known continental vertebrate fauna in the Cenozoic of Southern Asia (see Bajpai et al. 2007). This is the best age estimate possible at present, but confirmation is required from additional data.

Cenozoic squamates of South Asia are extremely poorly known. Rage (1987) reported two fragmentary teeth of Middle Eocene agamid lizards from Pakistan. The presence of lizards in the Vastan fauna was recently mentioned (Bajpai et al. 2005b, Rose et al. 2006), but the material has not yet been described or illustrated. Here we describe two new species of agamid lizards, one representing a new genus Vastanagama, and the second belonging to Tinosaurus. The identifications are based on a number of dentaries and a maxillary fragment found in association with the mammal fauna. These fossils represent the oldest known lizards from the Cenozoic of South Asia. Older, pre-Cenozoic records from India include those from the Jurassic Kota Formation (Evans et al. 2002) and a recently described Late Triassic form from the Tiki Formation (Datta and Ray 2006).

The material described in this paper is housed in the Vertebrate Paleontology Laboratory, Department of Earth Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, under the acronym IITR/SB/VLM.