Abstract We present an updated look at Carboniferous brachiopod biozonation from most of the world framed into a revised Carboniferous palaeogeography, based on a selection of the literature published on Carboniferous brachiopods since the nineteenth century. The biostratigraphic significance of the most important brachiopod taxa is synthesized in seven geographical correlations. The Mississippian is characterized by rich brachiopod faunas, with widespread taxa with a good potential for global correlation, such as Rugosochonetes , Delepinea , Buxtonia , Antiquatonia , Spinocarinifera , Marginatia , Fluctuaria , Ovatia , Rhipidomella , Lamellosathyris , Unispirifer , Tylothyris and Syringothyris . From the mid-Visean to the late Serpukhovian, taxa of gigantoproductidines are biostratigraphically significant, and occur everywhere except South America and Australia, which remain as distinct faunal successions for most of the period. A major turnover occurs at the beginning of the Pennsylvanian, characterized by a higher degree of provincialism. Pennsylvanian brachiopod faunas are diverse in China, Russia and North America, but otherwise they are less developed and are characterized mostly by endemic taxa, hampering long-distance correlation. An exception is the rapid diversification of taxa of the Choristitinae, which were widespread from the Bashkirian to the Moscovian, allowing long-distance correlation.

Abstract Zircon U-Pb ages measured with the SHRIMP ion microprobe have been used to date volcanic horizons associated with Early Carboniferous sediments of the Southern New England Orogen in eastern Australia. These results calibrate the numerical ages of eastern Australian biozones, including the four Early Carboniferous brachiopod zones between the Schellwienella burlingtonensis and Rhipidomella fortimuscula Zones, which include cosmopolitan faunas and so also constrain ages for European and international substages of the Carboniferous System. Refinements to the Early Carboniferous timescale include the ages of the Devonian-Carboniferous boundary, the Tournaisian-Viséan boundary, and correlation with the Holkerian Stage of Britain. New biostratigraphic correlations and ages constrain the associations of the Granulatisporites frustulensis Microflora and Grandispora maculosa Assemblage and indicate that the Nothorhacopteris flora, previously thought to be confined to Late Carboniferous units, ranges down into the upper Viséan Series (V3a). The zircon ages delimit the durations of the major volcanic events within the Southern New England Orogen and the time significance of depositional hiatuses within the stratigraphic succession, and revise correlations and the associated Viséan palaeogeography of eastern Australia.