Abstract The actinopterygian fishes from the continental Westphalian to the Lower Permian basins in the Czech Republic are reviewed and compared with those of deposits of equivalent age in some central and western European Basins. Nine genera of actinopterygians belonging to eight families are known from the Westphalian-Stephanian sediments, and five genera belonging to four families are known from the Early Permian sediments of the Bohemian Massif. The new family Sceletophoridae is erected for the genus Sceletophorus from the Westphalian D. Very close relationships of the actinopterygian fauna between the Bohemian Massif and especially the basins of the French Massif Central are discussed.

Abstract The Intra-Sudetic Basin is a Late Palaeozoic intramontane trough, situated in the eastern part of the European Permo-Carboniferous Basin and Range Province. Within the basin, tectonics, sedimentation and volcanic/subvolcanic activity were intimately related. Tectonics controlled the location of the depositional and volcanic centres. Many volcanic centres with subvolcanic intrusions of rhyodacitic, rhyolitic and trachyandesitic composition were located close to the intra-basinal depositional troughs, where thick accumulations of sedimentary rocks partly obstructed the movement of magma to the surface. Differences in the structure and geometry of intrusions at separate subvolcanic complexes reflect the influence of different discontinuities, faults, margins of collapse structures, boundaries of contrasting lithologies in the country rocks and the volcanic structures.

Abstract A well-justified stratigraphical correlation of continental successions and new palaeogeographic reconstruction of Pangaea reveal new insights into the northern Pangaean climate development influenced by palaeogeography, palaeotopography, glacio-eustatic sealevel changes and ocean currents. The overall Permo-Carboniferous aridization trend was interrupted by five wet phases. These are linked to the Gondwana icecap. The aridization and weakening of wet phases over time were not only caused by the drift of northern Pangaea to the arid climatic belt, but also by the successive closure of the Rheic Ocean, which caused the expansion of arid/semi-arid environments in the Lower/Middle Permian. The end of the Gondwana glaciation rearranged ocean circulation, leading to a cold, coast-parallel ocean current west of northern Pangaea, blocking moisture coming with westerly winds. The maximum of aridity was reached during the Roadian/Wordian. The Trans-Pangaean Mountain Belt was non-existent. Its single diachronous parts never exceeded an average elevation of 2000 m. The maximum elevation shifted during time from east to west. The Hercynian orogen never acted as an orographic east-west barrier, and the Inter-Tropical Convergence Zone was widely displaced, causing four seasons (dry summer/winter, wet spring/autumn) at the equator and a strong monsoon system.

Abstract: Conchostracans are one of the most common fossil animal groups of continental deposits from late Palaeozoic to modern times. Their habitats have ranged from perennial lakes of the Carboniferous and Early Permian to seasonal playa lakes and temporary ponds from the late Early Permian into the Triassic, where they could form mass occurrences. This, together with relatively high speciation rates, makes them ideal guide fossils, especially in otherwise fossil-poor wet and dry red beds. Based on material and data collected since the 1980s from both surface outcrops and well cores in central Europe, a preliminary conchostracan zonation is proposed. We used a conservative approach, erecting assemblage zones comprising two or three species instead of species-range zones with only one or, sometimes, two forms. Assemblage zones are more robust and provide more reliability for each delineated time interval. Isotopically dated occurrences of conchostracan zone species, or co-occurrences of conchostracans, insect zone species and marine index fossils such as conodonts and fusulinids, allow us to correlate our assemblage zones with the marine Standard Global Chronostratigraphic Scale.