Mesozoic • Cretaceous GSP memoir

Vitakri Formation

Late Cretaceous (latest Maastrichtian)

Cited in 6 sources Last reviewed Jul 31, 2026

Unit summary

Rank: Not recorded
Status: Published
Age: Mesozoic · Cretaceous · Late CretaceousLate Cretaceous (latest Maastrichtian)
Named by: Not recorded
Type locality: Vitakri Dome, Barkhan District, Balochistan29.6981°N, 69.3988°E
Thickness: 50-200 m
Lithology: Variegated sandstone, mudstone, conglomerate
Synonyms: Not recorded

Pakistan's main dinosaur-bearing rock — a latest-Cretaceous land deposit in Balochistan rich in titanosaur and other dinosaur bones.

Continental formation hosting Pakistani dinosaurs and associated vertebrates. Deposited by paleo-Vitakri River in meandering fluvial and floodplain environments.

Fossils

Titanosaurian sauropods Theropod dinosaurs Mesoeucrocodylians Pterosaurs

Contacts

In the Sulaiman Fold Belt column

Shale / mudSandstoneLimestoneFossils recordedContact not recorded

Band colour = period; texture = dominant rock type. Lines between bands mark the contact type; dotted = no contact recorded in the sources (not a claim of conformity). True scale makes height ∝ recorded thickness; hatched = thickness not recorded. Ages approximate, for ordering.

This unit (highlighted) within its province column; faded ends continue above and below. Line style marks the contact type.

Distribution & setting

Sulaiman Fold Belt

Basin: Not recorded
Region: Not recorded
Depositional environment: continental, terrestrial
Coordinates: 29.6981°N, 69.3988°E

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Correlation

Not recorded. Compare this unit against other basins on the correlation panel →

Economic significance

Coal & lignite Metals & minerals

Hosts the Kingri coalfield (latest Cretaceous / K-T-boundary lignite, ~2 million tons, Musa Khel district); a source of building sandstone; prospective for uranium and aluminous (bauxitic) rocks.

Remarks

A latest Maastrichtian (~66 Ma) continental red-bed unit of the Vitakri Dome (Barkhan, Balochistan) and one of the few dinosaur-bearing formations of the Indo-Pakistan subcontinent; it has yielded abundant Late Cretaceous titanosaurian sauropods, theropods, mesoeucrocodylians and pterosaurs, making it a key Gondwanan terrestrial vertebrate site.

Research notes (3)

Field-by-field findings drawn from the cited literature. Every statement is traced to a registered source — follow a citation for the full reference.

Name & nomenclature (1)

Malkani (2019) defines the Vitakri Lameta Formation as the upper part (up to ~35 m thick) of the former Pab Formation (formerly up to ~800 m), a latest-Cretaceous fluvial meandering-river / overbank red-bed unit (15-35 m, thickening WSW) hosting titanosaurian sauropods, abelisauroid theropods, mesoeucrocodylians and pterosaurs, capped by the K/Pg boundary. This Vitakri/Pab-top usage is the author's own nomenclature and is contested; recorded here for provenance, not adopted over the dataset's separate Vitakri and Pab units.

Malkani, M.S. (2019)

Age & correlation (1)

Record listed Jurassic–Cretaceous; the Vitakri Formation is latest Maastrichtian (Late Cretaceous, ~66 Ma), constrained between the Maastrichtian Pab Formation below and Paleocene formations above (Malkani).

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017)

Fossils & biostratigraphy (1)

Malkani et al. (2017, 2022): the latest-Maastrichtian Vitakri Formation (terrestrial red/maroon mudstone with quartzose sandstone; ~15–35 m; Fort Munro Group) is the type unit for an extensive Malkani-corpus vertebrate assemblage — 'pakisaurid'/'balochisaurid'/'gspsaurid' titanosaurian sauropods (e.g. Khetranisaurus, Sulaimanisaurus, Pakisaurus, Balochisaurus, Marisaurus, Nicksaurus, Gspsaurus, Saraikimasoom), theropods (Vitakridrinda, Vitakrisaurus), mesoeucrocodiles (Pabwehshi, Sulaimanisuchus, Induszalim), a pterosaur (Saraikisaurus), a bird (Wasaibpanchi) and a snake (Wadanaang). DATA-QUALITY CAVEAT: nearly all of these genera/families were erected within the single-author Malkani corpus and many are regarded as nomina dubia or diagnostically inadequate in the wider literature (only Pabwehshi pakistanensis is broadly accepted); recorded as attributed notes, and the curated fossil list is deliberately kept at the higher-taxon level.

Malkani, M.S., Khosa, M.H., Alyani, M.I., Somro, N., Zafar, T., Arif, J. & Aleem, M.Z. (2017)

Sources (6)

Malkani, M.S. & Mahmood, Z. (2017). Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Memoir Vol. 24.
Malkani, M.S. (2010). Updated Stratigraphy and Mineral Potential of Sulaiman Basin, Pakistan. Sindh University Research Journal (Science Series), 42(2), 39-66.
Malkani, M.S. (2019). Cretaceous Stratigraphy of Pakistan. Open Journal of Geology, 9, 671-673.
Malkani, M.S., Khosa, M.H., Alyani, M.I., Somro, N., Zafar, T., Arif, J. & Aleem, M.Z. (2017). Revised Stratigraphic Setup and Mineral Deposits of Kirthar Basin (Lower Indus Basin), Pakistan. Lasbela University Journal of Science and Technology, VI, 54-84.
Malkani, M.S., Ilyas, M., Yasin, R., Abbas, A., Samiullah, K., Raza, T., Hassan, S.S.E., Fazal, R.M., Noor, A. & Malik, A. (2022). Geology of Northern Sulaiman Foldbelt, Shirani and Waziristan Regions (South Punjab, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa): New Tomistominae (Miocene False Gharial) from Sakhi Sarwar Area of Dera Ghazi Khan (South Punjab), Pakistan. Open Journal of Geology, 12(6), 521-564.
Malkani, M.S., Mahmood, Z., Somro, N. & Shaikh, S.I. (2017). Revised Stratigraphy and Mineral Resources of Kirthar Basin, Pakistan. Geological Survey of Pakistan, Information Release No. 1010.

Reviewer confidence: high

Every fact on this page is source-cited. This entry is part of the peer-archived Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset (doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991, CC‑BY‑4.0).

Lexicon status: Appears in a single-author Geological Survey of Pakistan memoir (Malkani & Mahmood 2017), not cross-confirmed against the Shah lexicon. The Stratigraphic Committee of Pakistan is largely inactive, so documented provenance — not formal ratification — is the available signal.

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Cite this unit

APA

Qudsi, L. (2026). Vitakri Formation. In Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset [Data set]. Zenodo. https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991

BibTeX

@misc{stratigraphypk_vitakriformation,
  author    = {Qudsi, Lareb},
  title     = {{Vitakri Formation} --- Pakistan Stratigraphy Dataset},
  year      = {2026},
  publisher = {Zenodo},
  doi       = {10.5281/zenodo.21363991},
  url       = {https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991}
}

Archived dataset: doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.21363991 (CC‑BY‑4.0) · Direct link to this entry: https://stratigraphy.pk/formation/vitakri-formation (accessed October 29, 2026).

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