Bhutan (/buːˈtɑːn/; Dzongkha: འབྲུག་ཡུལ་, Romanized: Druk Yul [ʈuk̚˩.yː˩]), officially known as the Kingdom of Bhutan (Dzongkha: འབྲུག་རྒྱལ་ཁབ་, Romanized: Druk Gyal Khap), is a landlocked country in the Eastern Himalayas, located between China and India.

Bhutan is known as "Druk Yul," or "Land of the Thunder Dragon".

Nepal and Bangladesh are located near Bhutan, but do not share a land border.

The country has a territory of 38,394 square kilometers (14,824 sq mi) which ranks 133rd in terms of land area.

Bhutan is a constitutional monarchy with Vajrayana Buddhism as the state religion.

The subalpine Himalayan mountains in the north rise from the country's lush subtropical plains in the south.

In the Bhutanese Himalayas, there are peaks higher than 7,000 meters (23,000 ft) above sea level.

Gangkhar Puensum is Bhutan's highest peak and is the highest unclimbed mountain in the world.

The capital and largest city is Thimphu.

The Himalayan mountain chain including Bhutan is a fold and thrust belt that can be divided into four zones bounded by thrusts from south to north: Sub-Himalaya, Lesser Himalaya, Greater Himalaya and Tethyan Himalaya. The Sub-Himalaya is essentially composed of Miocene to Pleistocene molassic sediments derived from the erosion of the Himalaya. The Lesser Himalaya is of Cambrian to Permian age and consist of sedimentary rocks as sandstone, shale, graywacke, quartzite, phyllite, dolomite, coal beds, and others. The Greater Himalaya is of late Proterozoic to early Cambrian age and consists of crystalline rocks as gneiss, schist, marble, metagraywacke, quartzite, and others. The Tethyan Himalaya is an approximately 100-km-wide synclinorium formed by strongly folded and imbricated, weakly metamorphosed sedimentary series. Only its southern end part is distributed in the northern Bhutan. Massive to foliated, syn-Himalayan leucogranite plutons intrudes Greater Himalaya zones, as well as Tethyan Himalaya rocks.

Fossils

There are 10 fossil localities from the PaleoBioDB database within this region.

These data are provided on an experimental basis and are taken from external databases. Mindat.org has no control currently over the accuracy of these data.

Occurrences	10
Youngest Fossil Listed	290 Ma (Permian)
Oldest Fossil Listed	497 Ma (Cambrian)
Stratigraphic Units	Unit No. Occurrences Age Seti Khola 6 298.9 - 290.1 Ma (Paleozoic) Pele La - Quartzite 4 497 - 485.4 Ma (Cambrian)
Fossils from Region	Click here to show the list.
Accepted Name Hierarchy Age Platyteichum genus Animalia : Mollusca : Gastropoda : Pleurotomariida : Gosseletinidae : Platyteichum 298.9 - 290.1 Ma Paleozoic Kaolishania genus Animalia : Arthropoda : Trilobita : Corynexochida : Kaolishaniidae : Kaolishania 497 - 485.4 Ma Cambrian Orthotetes genus Animalia : Brachiopoda : Strophomenata : Orthotetida : Orthotetidae : Orthotetes 298.9 - 290.1 Ma Paleozoic Waagenoconcha genus Animalia : Brachiopoda : Strophomenata : Productida : Echinoconchidae : Waagenoconcha 298.9 - 290.1 Ma Paleozoic Fenestrida order Animalia : Bryozoa : Stenolaemata : Fenestrida 298.9 - 290.1 Ma Paleozoic Trigonotreta orientensis species Animalia : Brachiopoda : Rhynchonellata : Spiriferida : Trigonotretidae : Trigonotreta : Trigonotreta orientensis 298.9 - 290.1 Ma Paleozoic Billingsella tonkiniana species Animalia : Brachiopoda : Strophomenata : Billingsellida : Billingsellidae : Billingsella : Billingsella tonkiniana 497 - 485.4 Ma Cambrian Taipaikia glabra species Animalia : Arthropoda : Trilobita : Corynexochida : Tsinaniidae : Taipaikia : Taipaikia glabra 497 - 485.4 Ma Cambrian
Fossil Localities	Click to show 2 fossil localities

Other Databases

Wikipedia:	https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bhutan
Wikidata ID:	Q917
GeoNames ID:	1252634

Localities in this Region

Other Regions, Features and Areas that Intersect

References