Abstract For the biostratigraphy of mixed continental-marine and purely continental sections in the palaeotropical belt of Euramerica, 9 insect and 8 conchostracan zones are newly defined or improved. These zones encompass the time interval from the Early Pennsylvanian (middle Bashkirian) up into the early Permian (early Asselian) of the Euramercian biotic province. They are linked as much as possible to the marine Standard Global Chronostrigraphic Scale by common occurrences of insects and/or conchostracans with conodonts in mixed marine-continental sections as well as by the thus far available and reliable radioisotopic ages of associated volcanic rocks. This insect and conchostracan zonation is an alternative tool to the well-established macro-plant biostratigraphy of the Pennsylvanian. In contrast to the latter, only single specimens of insects or conchostracans, even if more rare than plant remains, allow biostratigraphic dating with a similar high temporal resolution.

Abstract Late Palaeozoic sediments in central Morocco and the High Atlas Mountains document the development of this area during the formation of the Mauretanide part of the Hercynian orogeny. Continental basins formed during the Stephanian and Permian. Although scattered in time, they provide valuable bioGéographical and climatic information for the Mauretanides as a link between the Variscides in the east, the Appalachians in the west and the Karoo in the south. New blattid insects in the Souss Basin enable correlation to Early Stephanian B. Furthermore, we document the oldest African tetrapod tracks ( Batrachichnus, Dromopus ). Litho- and biofacies indicate seasonally wet and dry phases. Wet red beds of the Khenifra Basin have produced tetrapod bones and the tracks Limnopus, Batrachichnus and Dromopus . Macrofloras give a transitional Autunian/Saxonian age. This fits well into the Artinskian wet phase. Similar facies pattern in the Tiddas Basin are correlated by tetrapod tracks as transitional Artinskian to Kungurian. Advanced tetrapod tracks of Synaptichnium and Rhynchosauroides were discovered in the Ikakern Formation of the Argana Basin, dated by pareiasaur remains as Wuchiapingian. Red beds of similar type are known in Europe, for example, from the Late Permian of the Lodève Basin. They originated during the Wuchiapingian wet phase.