Polar glaciers and life at the equator: The history of Dinantian and Namurian (Carboinferous) climate

Biotic migration patterns provide a history of relative climate change that can be used to study Dinantian and Namurian (Carboniferous) climates. High-latitude warming between the middle and late Visean may have been caused by the collision of Laurussia and Gondwana. High-latitude cooling and equatorial warming between the Namurian A and B may have been caused by the onset of glaciation in the Southern Hemisphere. Patterns of faunal migration and extinction and floral radiation were similar during Namurian and Miocene glacial onsets, and provide criteria for assessing other extinction events tied to changes in paleoclimate.