Abstract The Late Pennsylvanian was a time of ice ages and climate dynamics that drove biotic changes in the marine and non-marine realms. The apex of late Paleozoic glaciation in southern Gondwana was during the Late Pennsylvanian, rather than the early Permian as inferred from more equatorial Pangaea. Waxing and waning of ice sheets drove cyclothemic sedimentation in the Pangaean tropics, providing an astrochronology tuned to Earth-orbital cycles, tied to climatic changes, reflected in aeolian loess and palaeosol archives. Vegetation change across the Middle–Late Pennsylvanian boundary was not a ‘Carboniferous rainforest collapse’, but instead a complex and drawn out step-wise change from one kind of rainforest to another. Changes in marine invertebrate and terrestrial vertebrate animals occurred across the Middle–Late Pennsylvanian boundary, but these did not lead to substantive changes in the organization of those communities. The base of the Upper Pennsylvanian is the base of the Kasimovian Stage, and this boundary needs a GSSP to standardize and stabilize chronostratigraphic usage. To avoid further chronostratigraphic confusion, the Cantabrian Substage should be abandoned, and the traditional Westphalian–Stephanian boundary should be returned to and recognized as the time of major floristic change, the lycospore extinction event.

Abstract In Europe, North Africa and Asia Minor, the remains of Pennsylvanian sedimentary basins bearing continental deposits either intimately mixed with shallow-marine strata or deposited in exclusively continental settings are preserved. Long-lasting research on these basins allowed the definition of regional stages and substages based on marine fauna and terrestrial flora, later extended by terrestrial and freshwater faunal biostratigraphies. Glacioeustatically driven marine bands provide laterally widespread correlation markers; however, where such bands are missing only biostratigraphic control exists. Resolution of biostratigraphic zonations combined with gaps in sedimentary successions and variable quality of the fossil record throughout the basin fills do not allow in all cases a precise correlation between the Pennsylvanian basins in Europe and, in turn, the timing of tectonic, climatic and biotic events, and thus an absolute complete understanding of the response of terrestrial and freshwater biota to climate changes across eastern tropical Pangaea. A helpful tool is new radioisotopic ages of intercalated volcaniclastics that reveal the partial diachroneity of some widely used biostratigraphies. We attempt to present the current state of the art to stimulate further research to mitigate gaps in our knowledge.

Abstract In the Carboniferous, terrestrial vegetation became widespread, diverse and abundant. The resulting fossil record has proved to be an effective biostratigraphic tool for intra- and interbasinal correlations. Besides palaeogeographical configurations, Carboniferous plant biostratigraphy is affected by a transition from greenhouse conditions during most of the Mississippian to an icehouse climate in the Pennsylvanian. The greenhouse Mississippian climate resulted in weak provincialism, with a cosmopolitan flora ranging from the tropics to middle latitudes. The global cooling around the Mississippian–Pennsylvanian boundary enhanced development of a latitudinal climatic zonation and related floral provincialism. These changes are expressed in the recognition of distinct realms or kingdoms, where the tropical Amerosinian Realm (or Euramerican and Cathaysian realms) is surrounded by the Angaran and Gondwanan realms occupying middle to high latitudes of the northern and southern hemispheres, respectively. Floristic endemism in the Pennsylvanian precludes development of a global macrofloral biostratigraphy. Instead, each realm or area has its own biostratigraphic scheme. Poorer and less diverse floras of the Gondwanan and Angaran realms resulted in the establishment of relatively low-resolution macrofloral biostratigraphic schemes. Higher-resolution macrofloral zonations exist only in the tropical Amerosinian Realm due to diverse and abundant floras dominated by free-sporing and early seed plants occupying extensive wetlands.

Abstract The Carboniferous (359.2–299 Ma, Gradstein et al. 2004 ) succession of Central Europe records one of the most important time periods with respect to European geology, since it marks the final collision of Gondwana with the northern continent of Laurussia (i.e. Laurentia, Baltica and Avalonia). Oblique convergence resulted in collisional processes which created a mountain belt extending from Russia, through western Europe and into North America. The climax of the Variscan Orogeny was the formation of the supercontinent Pangaea leaving a relict Palaeo-tethys to the east ( Scotese & Langford 1995 ) (Fig. 9.1 ). The Variscan belt is a broad (c. 1000 km) complex curvilinear feature extending across Europe and marking the zones of Variscan-age deformation (Figs 9.2 & 9.3 ). The final phase of Variscan activity was also a period of terrane mobility and tectonic instability in the Central European region with sinistral wrench faulting causing widespread rifting of the northern European crust ( Pegrum 1984 a, b ; Ziegler 1990 ). The Carboniferous succession in Central Europe is generally dominated by marine sediments (both clastic and carbonate) in the lower part of the succession¨ The clastic sediments tend to be deeper-water shelf or turbiditic successions, although in some areas (e.g. Belgium, northern Germany) limestones are locally important or even dominant, particularly during the Tournaisian and Visean. In late Carboniferous times, successions are predominantly continental with some coal-bearing units being deposited (particularly in Westphalian times). An exception to the dominantly sedimentary record is provided

Abstract The Permian (299-251 Ma; Wardlaw et al. 2004 ) succession of Central Europe records the change from a Pangaea configuration and compressive tectonic regime inherited from the Variscan Orogeny, to the development of the broad thermal subsidence-controlled Southern Permian Basin and its inundation by the Zechstein Sea. During latest Carboniferous-Early Permian times, the final phase of Variscan orogenic extension produced a series of small strike-slip and extensional continental basins across central and western Europe. Within these basins Stephanian and Lower Rotliegend continental successions were deposited. Subsequent thermal subsidence led to the gradual coalescence of these isolated basins to form the large Southern Permian Basin which extended across much of central and western Europe (Fig. 10.1 ). Early Permian sedimentation was predominantly fluvial and lacustrine, changing later to aeolian. This change was due either to a significant climate change, or the result of a decline in relief of the surrounding uplands. By the end of the Early Permian extensive dunefields occupied the basin margins with saline lakes (playas) in the basin depocentres ( Verdier 1996 ). A regional, possibly glacio-eustatic, rise in sea level later in Permian (Zechstein) times resulted in the rapid flooding (from the north) of the Southern Permian Basin. The Zechstein succession comprises a series of evaporitic cycles, and associated carbonates and muds, reflecting progressively greater evaporation and the shallowing either of the whole basin or the margins of the basin. There has been a considerable amount of interest in the Permian in recent years, with a number