Kala Chitta Range (in Punjabi and ''Kālā Chiṭṭā'') is a mountain range in the

Attock District Attock District ( Punjabi/Urdu), known as Campbellpur District during British Raj, is a district, located on the Pothohar Plateau, in north western Punjab, Pakistan; created in April 1904. According to 2023 Pakistani census population of Att ...

Punjab, Pakistan Punjab (, ) is a Administrative units of Pakistan, province of Pakistan. With a population of over 127 million, it is the Demographics of Pakistan, most populous province in Pakistan and the List of first-level administrative divisions by popu ...

. "Kala" and "Chitta" are Punjabi words, meaning "black" and "white", respectively. The range thrusts eastward across the Potohar plateau towards

Rawalpindi Rawalpindi is the List of cities in Punjab, Pakistan by population, third-largest city in the Administrative units of Pakistan, Pakistani province of Punjab, Pakistan, Punjab. It is a commercial and industrial hub, being the list of cities in P ...

. Pakistan's Kuldana Formation is best known for its fossil

Eocene The Eocene ( ) is a geological epoch (geology), epoch that lasted from about 56 to 33.9 million years ago (Ma). It is the second epoch of the Paleogene Period (geology), Period in the modern Cenozoic Era (geology), Era. The name ''Eocene'' comes ...

mammals, including primitive cetaceans such as '' Pakicetus'', '' Ambulocetus'' and '' Attockicetus''. Kuldana mammals have been considered in different studies as coming from the early

Lutetian The Lutetian is, in the geologic timescale, a stage (stratigraphy), stage or age (geology), age in the Eocene. It spans the time between . The Lutetian is preceded by the Ypresian and is followed by the Bartonian. Together with the Bartonian it ...

(early Middle Eocene), late

Ypresian In the geologic timescale the Ypresian is the oldest age (geology), age or lowest stage (stratigraphy), stratigraphic stage of the Eocene. It spans the time between , is preceded by the Thanetian Age (part of the Paleocene) and is followed by th ...

(late early Eocene) or, more recently, encompassing much of Ypresian up to early Lutetian time (early part of the early Eocene to early Eocene medium).

Kuldana Formation

The Kuldana Formation is located in the Kala Chita hills and is a thin, 20-120 m thick tongue of low-lying continental red beds that lie within a much thicker sequence of foraminifera-rich marine formations. Shallow planktonic and

benthic The benthic zone is the ecological region at the lowest level of a body of water such as an ocean, lake, or stream, including the sediment surface and some sub-surface layers. The name comes from the Ancient Greek word (), meaning "the depths". ...

foraminifera Foraminifera ( ; Latin for "hole bearers"; informally called "forams") are unicellular organism, single-celled organisms, members of a phylum or class (biology), class of Rhizarian protists characterized by streaming granular Ectoplasm (cell bio ...

limit the age of the Kuldana Formation to the late early or early middle

, and the current interpretation of global sea level stratigraphy favours the latter. The short duration of the low-water interval when Kuldana mammals were discovered means that differences between samples likely represent differences in local living environments, deposition sites, and sampling, rather than a substantial difference in age.

Kohat formation

The Kohat formation consists of calcareous shale and light grey limestone. It lies on top of the Kuldana formation and intermingles with the Murree formation of the

group. Formation in the middle Eocene.Geology of the Lower Jurassic Datta Formation, Kala Chitta Range, Pakistan
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Notes

{{PunjabGeography Attock District Mountain ranges of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Mountain ranges of Punjab (Pakistan)