Abstract Upper Carboniferous stages in terrestrial strata are consistently recognizable throughout the Euramerican Realm based on the ranges of plant macrofossils rather than named biozones. Uniformitarianism is an invaluable principle used to understand much of Earth's history. However, it has been recognized that relatively short time intervals exist when major changes occurred in the biota and sedimentation style at a non-uniformitarian time scale. Many well-defined Upper Carboniferous stage boundaries are located at such events. The Cantabrian Stage was proposed in 1969 based on the assumption that the ‘Florensprung’ (‘floral jump’) of Gothan, a dramatic change in terrestrial floras at the traditional Westphalian–Stephanian boundary, indicated that strata were missing, and the postulated ‘gap’ had to be closed by finding strata representing this ‘missing’ time elsewhere. The suggestion of a ‘gap’ or hiatus at this level reflects uniformitarian thinking, but is incorrect. As recent work has shown that a drastic climatic change reached a threshold in the tropical palaeoequatorial parts of Pangaea at the Westphalian–Stephanian (approximately the Moscovian–Kasimovian) boundary as a consequence of a drying trend, floras changed rapidly, and the traditional Westphalian–Stephanian boundary is thus one of the most easily recognizable biostratigraphic boundaries in Pennsylvanian terrestrial beds. The Cantabrian Stage, proposed to fill the non-existent gap, does not exist and cannot be recognized, either in its type area or elsewhere.

Abstract A threshold-like vegetational change in tropical wetlands occurred in the early Kasimovian (the US Desmoinesian–Missourian boundary) – Event 3. Two earlier significant changes occurred, first in the mid-Moscovian (Atokan–Desmoinesian; ∼Bolsovian–Asturian) – Event 1, and the second in the late Moscovian (mid-Desmoinesian; mid-Asturian) – Event 2. These changes occurred during a time period of dynamic and complex physical change in Euramerican Pangaea driven by changes in polar ice volume and accompanying changes in sea level, atmospheric circulation, rainfall, and temperature. During the Event 3 change, hyperbolized as ‘the Carboniferous rainforest collapse’, lycopsid dominance of (mostly peat) swamps changed to marattialean tree-fern and medullosan pteridosperm dominance, and biodiversity decreased. Event 3 encompassed one glacial–interglacial cycle and included vegetational turnover in other wetland habitats. For several subsequent glacial–interglacial cycles peatland dominance varied, known from palynology, before stabilizing. These vegetational changes likely reflect climatic events driving unidirectional, non-reversible wetland vegetational changes, during cooler, wetter parts of glacial–interglacial cycles. Discussion is complicated by different placements of crucial stratigraphic boundaries, but under the same names, compromising both clear communication and understanding of the literature. Not the least is the floating base of the Cantabrian Substage, together with the position of the Westphalian–Stephanian Stage boundary.

Late Carboniferous (Pennsylvanian) fossil floras from the United States are well studied as adpression, permineralization, and palynomorph assemblages throughout the stratigraphic column. These data represent an intrabiomic record that can serve as a proxy for climate change in the Carboniferous tropics. The short-term climatic changes that accompanied the alternations between glacial and interglacial intervals did not alter the persistence of the ecological structure of the landscape. Even after floras had been extirpated over large parts of the North American continent in response to marine transgressions, the same plants and plant communities repeatedly returned when the sea receded. However, at the Westphalian-Stephanian boundary (approximately Desmoinesian-Missourian; Moscovian-Kasimovian boundary), major vegetational changes occurred that suggest a significant environmental threshold had been exceeded. Entire clades (most tree lycopsids and medullosans with very large seeds) became extinct, and tree ferns became dominant, changing the aspect of the ecological landscape. This change reflects the overall warming of Earth’s climate, greater seasonality, and shorter periods of wet conditions in the tropics of the late Pennsylvanian.

Roof-shale floras have been a major source of data for the understanding of Carboniferous vegetation. Early debate on their origin centered around the question of whether these megafloral assemblages are autochthonous or allochthonous. In these discussions, the sedimentological context in which the preserved fossil assemblage (taphoflora) occurred was largely ignored. W. C. Darrah saw the complexity of these issues, presented helpful starting points for further investigations, and influenced the thinking of the next generation. This chapter characterizes the sedimentological and taphonomic features of a spectrum of roof-shale floras. There are three levels at which the preservation of plant parts can be viewed: (1) early taphonomic processes and earliest diagenesis can destroy or preserve plant parts in a given clastic depositional setting; (2) those plant parts that are preserved can be autochthonous, parautochthonous, or allochthonous in relationship to their original place of growth; (3) with respect to a peat layer (coal bed), the overlying clastic material can be deposited in a continuous transition, after a short temporal break (discontinuity), or after a significant hiatus of time. Characterization of roof-shale floras must take into consideration the sedimentological interpretation of the associated lithologies, the stratigraphic sequence, and the taphonomic processes involved in their formation. Characterization is essential before such floras can be used in higher-level interpretations, such as paleoecological reconstructions.