Abstract The Balkan Peninsula includes the margins of both Eurasia (the Moesian microplate) and Gondwana (the Adria microplate as a promontory); it also includes ophiolitic belts that represent remnants of Tethys and its marginal seas. Various terranes docked to larger crustal units and were incorporated to form new units. Most units within the Balkan Peninsula moved northwards to their present positions, jointly or independently, from positions around, or south of, the Equator from the end of the Palaeozoic to the present day. The assembly of these units was associated with generally northeastward subduction of Tethys. The first main period of docking was in the Carboniferous. Later, from the Permian to the Maastrichtian, marginal seas opened and later closed. Island arcs formed within the northwestern part of Tethys, and parts of continental margins were detached and relocated, or were transported along transcurrent faults. In the Maastrichtian the entire oceanic area was closed and the main units sutured. The resulting assemblage later underwent additional compression, rotation and transcurrent displacement of some units.

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.