Abstract Rugose corals are one of the major fossil groups in shallow-water environments. They played an important role in dividing and correlating Carboniferous strata during the last century, when regional biostratigraphic schemes were established, and may be useful for long-distance correlation. Carboniferous rugose corals document two evolutionary events. One is the Tournaisian recovery event, with abundant occurrences of typical Carboniferous rugose corals such as columellate taxa and a significant diversification of large, dissepimented corals. The other is the changeover of rugose coral composition at the mid-Carboniferous boundary, which is represented by the disappearance of many large dissepimented taxa with complex axial structures and the appearance of typical Pennsylvanian taxa characterized by compound rugose taxa. The biostratigraphic scales for rugose corals show a finer temporal resolution in the Mississippian than in the Pennsylvanian, which was probably caused by the Late Paleozoic Ice Age that resulted in glacial–eustatic changes and a lack of continuous Pennsylvanian carbonate strata. The Pennsylvanian rugose corals are totally missing in the Cimmerian Continent. High-resolution biostratigraphy of rugose corals has so far only been achieved in few regions for the Mississippian timescale. In most regions, more detailed taxonomic work and precise correlations between different fossil groups are needed.

Abstract Carboniferous strata within this region occur in the broad eastern flank of the north-south axis of the Clwydian Range from Prestatyn to Oswestry, sections within the Vale of Clwyd and the outlying districts around Llandudno, Menai Straits and Anglesey (Fig. 25). In NE Wales and the Welsh Borderlands the gently tilted Visean limestones are succeeded to the east by Namurian to Westphalian strata forming the Flint and Denbigh coalfields. This region includes intermittent development of Tournaisian to Visean alluvial deposits (‘Basement Beds’). These are overlain by Visean ramp-to-shelf carbonates, present along the northern margin of the Wales-Brabant High, extending across North Wales (Clwyd Limestone Group). Visean to Namurian basinal deposits (Craven Group) occur on the north coast of North Wales (Fig. 25), deposited on the southern margin of the Irish Sea Basin (see Chapter 16). During the Namurian and Westphalian this region is represented by thick fluvio-deltaic successions, including the Millstone Grit and Pennine Coal Measures groups, in turn overlain by alluvial deposits of the Warwickshire Group.

Abstract During the Carboniferous, Northern Ireland straddled a zone of dextral strike-slip faulting, comparable to the Midland Valley of Scotland (see Chapter 14). The earliest Mississippian marine transgression reached Northern Ireland in the late Tournaisian (CM Miospore Biozone) and from then until the mid-Arnsbergian Substage (E 2b 1 Subzone) the sediment fill was deposited in close proximity to the northern margin of the basin. Metamorphic rocks of the Central Highlands (Grampian) Terrane to the north were repeatedly exposed during episodes of marine regression. In the SE of the region it appears that the Southern Uplands-Down-Longford Terrane was finally submerged in the late Asbian or early Brigantian. The cumulative thickness of 7000 m is represented mainly by Tournaisian, Visean and lower Namurian rocks in Co. Fermanagh, the Fintona Block, peripheral sections at Coalisland and isolated basins such as Newtownstewart, all in Co. Tyrone (Fig. 51). The most continuous outcrop and succession extend from Co. Fermanagh and south Co. Tyrone into north Co. Armagh. The Carboniferous outcrop in the eastern part of Northern Ireland is reduced to outliers at Ballycastle in Co. Antrim, and in Co. Down at Cultra, Castle Espie and Carlingford Lough. During the Pennsylvanian, much of Northern Ireland was land, and strata of this age are limited in extent to the Fintona Block and east Co. Tyrone (Fig. 51).

Abstract Several existing schemes for Carboniferous stratigraphy officially adopted in regions of the Russian Federation are summarized and discussed. These regions with different geological histories and distinct depositional settings include the Moscow Basin, the Urals, North Timan, Siberia, the Kuznetsk Basin and the Mongol–Okhotsk, Verkhoyansk–Okhotsk and Kolyma–Omolon regions. Broad correlations based on macro- and microfossils are possible between the regions, while all regional schemes are correlated to the official Russian General Stratigraphic Scheme for the Carboniferous, using zonations based on orthostratigraphic fossils. The Russian General Stratigraphic Scheme is correlated to the International Stratigraphic Scale using ammonoids, conodonts, foraminifers and palynomorphs.