Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-68ccn Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-12T02:24:15.718Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

The Gondwana–Laurussia convergence process: evidence from the Middle Mississippian (Viséan) palynostratigraphic record

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 September 2010

FELIPE GONZÁLEZ*
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología, Campus de ‘El Carmen’, Universidad de Huelva, Spain 21071
CARMEN MORENO
Affiliation:
Departamento de Geología, Campus de ‘El Carmen’, Universidad de Huelva, Spain 21071
GEOFFREY PLAYFORD
Affiliation:
School of Earth Sciences, The University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia 4072
*
Author for correspondence: fbarrio@uhu.es

Abstract

The Gondwana–Laurussia convergence process can be explored by studying the Middle Mississippian (Viséan) palynoflora of northwest Africa. Statistical analysis of the Viséan miospore assemblages reported from Morocco defines two populations, one with clear Laurussian affinity from the northern margin of the Western Meseta, and the other, more Gondwanan in composition, from the southern part of the Western Meseta and Anti-Atlas. Moreover, no transitional assemblages have been described from the region. These palynofloral variations are a consequence of the complex palaeogeography of the northwest African margin, which was controlled by the Variscan Orogeny during Viséan times. Taking into consideration the palynofloral affinity of the miospore assemblages reported throughout the entire North African margin and the Middle East, it is possible to envisage a Late Carboniferous Pangaea amalgamation process initially evolving from the west, while in the east the ocean separating Gondwana and Laurussia persisted as an effective barrier to floral migration.

Type
Original Article
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2010

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abdesselam-Rouighi, F. & Coquel, R. 1997. Palynologie du Dévonien terminal-Carbonifère Inférieur dans le Sud-Est du bassin d'Illizi (Sahara algerien). Position des premières lycospores dans la série stratigraphique. Annales de la Société Géologique du Nord 5, 4757.Google Scholar
Attar, A., Fournier, J., Candilier, A. M. & Coquel, R. 1980. Étude palynologique du Dévonien terminal et du Carbonifère Inférieur du bassin d'Illizi (Fort-Polignac), Algérie. Revue de l'Institut Français du Pétrole et Annales des Combustibles Liquides 35, 585618.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bamoumen, H., Aarab, El H. & Soulaimani, A. 2008. Evolution tectono-sédimentaire et magmatique des bassins Viséen supérieur d'Azrou-Khénifra et des Jebilet orientales (Meseta Marocaine). Estudios Geológicos 64, 107–22.Google Scholar
Beauchamp, J. & Izart, A. 1987. Early Carboniferous basins of the Atlas-Meseta Domain (Morocco): sedimentary model and geodynamic evolution. Geology 15, 797800.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Berkhli, M., Vachard, D. & Paicheler, J. C. 2001. Les séries du Carbonifère Inférieur de la région d'Adarouch, NE du Maroc central: lithologie et biostratigraphie. Journal of African Earth Sciences 32, 567–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bernardin, C., Cornée, J. J., Corsini, M., Mayol, S., Muller, J. & Tayebi, M. 1988. Variations d'épaisseur du Cambrien moyen en Meseta marocaine occidentale; signification géodynamique des données de surface et de subsurface. Journal Canadien des Sciences de la Terre 25, 2104–17.Google Scholar
Bouabdelli, M. & Piqué, A. 1996. Du bassin sur décrochement au bassin d'avant-pays: dynamique du Bassin d'Azrou-Khénifra (Maroc hercynien central). Journal of African Earth Sciences 23, 213–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Brindley, S. & Spinner, E. 1989. Palynological assemblages from Lower Carboniferous deposits, Burntisland district, Fife, Scotland. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 47, 215–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broutin, J. 1986. Étude paléobotanique et palynologique du passage Carbonifère Permien dans le sud-ouest de la Péninsule Ibérique. Paris: Centre National de la Recherche Scientifique, 165 pp.Google Scholar
Broutin, J. & Doubinger, J. 1985. Intérêt stratigraphique et paléogéographique des palynoflores du Permien inférieur de la province de Séville (Espagne du Sud-ouest). Compte Rendu 10th Congrès International de Stratigraphie et de Géologie du Carbonifère, Madrid (2), 297–306.Google Scholar
Broutin, J., Doubinger, J., El Hamet, M. O. & Lang, J. 1990. Palynologie comparée du Permien nigérien (Afrique occidentale) et Peritethysien; implications stratigraphiques et phytogeographiques. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 66, 243–61.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Broutin, J., Roger, J., Platel, J. P., Angiolini, L., Baud, A., Bucher, H., Marcoux, J. & Al Hasmi, H. 1995. The Permian Pangea; phytogeographic implications of new paleontological discoveries in Oman (Arabian Peninsula). Comptes Rendus de l'Académie des Sciences, Série II. Sciences de la Terre et des Planètes 321, 1069–86.Google Scholar
Butterworth, M. A. & Spinner, E. G. 1967. Lower Carboniferous spores from north-west England. Palaeontology 10, 124.Google Scholar
Campbell, C. A. & Valentine, J. W. 1977. Comparability of modern and ancient marine faunal provinces. Paleobiology 3, 4957.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayton, G. 1985. Dinantian miospores and inter-continental correlation. Compte Rendu 10th Congrès International de Stratigraphie et de Géologie du Carbonifère, Madrid, (4), 9–23.Google Scholar
Clayton, G. 1995. Carboniferous miospore and pollen assemblages from the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 89, 115–23.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayton, G. & Loboziak, S. 1985. Early Carboniferous (early Viséan–Serpukhovian) palynomorphs. Journal of Micropalaeontology 4, 8392.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Clayton, G., Loboziak, S., Streel, M., Turnau, E. & Utting, J. 1991. Palynological events in the Mississippian (Carboniferous) of Europe, North Africa and North America. Courier Forschungsinstitut Senckenberg 130, 7984.Google Scholar
Clayton, G., Owens, B., Al-Hajri, S. & Filatoff, J. 2000. Latest Devonian and Early Carboniferous miospore assemblages from Saudi Arabia. In Stratigraphic Palynology of the Palaeozoic of Saudi Arabia (eds Al-Hajri, S. & Owens, B.), pp. 146–53. Bahrain: Gulf PetroLink.Google Scholar
Clayton, G., Wicander, R. & Pereira, Z. 2002. Palynological evidence concerning the relative positions of Northern Gondwana and Southern Laurussia in latest Devonian and Mississippian times. Studies in Palaeozoic palaeontology and biostratigraphy in honour of Charles Hepworth Holland. Special Papers in Palaeontology 67, 4556.Google Scholar
Coquel, R. & Abdesselam-Rouighi, F. 2000. Révision palynostratigraphique du Dévonien terminal-Carbonifère Inférieur dans le Grand Erg occidental (Bassin de Béchar) Sahara Algérien. Revue de Micropaléontologie 43, 353–64.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Coquel, R., Doubinger, J. & Massa, D. 1988. Nouvelles données palynologiques sur l'intervalle Carbonifère Viséen/Moscovien, Bassin de Rhadamès (Libye). Revue de l'Institut Français du Pétrole et Annales des Combustibles Liquides 43, 316.Google Scholar
Coquel, R., Loboziak, S., Stampfli, G. & Stampfli-Vuille, B. 1977. Palynologie du Dévonien Supérieur et du Carbonifère Inférieur dans l'Elburz oriental (Iran Nord-Est). Revue de Micropaléontologie 20, 5971.Google Scholar
Cornée, J. J., Destombes, J. & Willefert, S. 1987. Stratigraphie du Paléozoïque de l'extrémité nord-ouest du Haut-Atlas occidental (Maroc hercynien); interprétation du cadre sédimentaire du Maroc occidental. Bulletin de la Société Géologique de France 3, 327–35.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Craig, J., Thusu, B., Luning, S., Zanella, E., Davidson, L. M., Said, F., Asbali, A. I., Glover, T., Echickh, K., Seddiq, H., Zwawi, W. & Shelmani, M. 1999. Structural styles and prospectivity in the Palaeozoic hydrocarbon systems of North Africa. AAPG International Conference and Exhibition, Birmingham, pp. 123–4.Google Scholar
Doubinger, J. & Fabre, J. 1983. Mise en évidence d'un Autunien a ‘flore mixte’ dans le Bassin de Bechar-Abadla (Sahara occidental algérien). Pollen et Spores 25, 91116.Google Scholar
Doubinger, J. & Rauscher, R. 1966. Spores du Viséen marin de Bourbach-le-Haut dans les Vosges du sud. Pollen et Spores 8, 361405.Google Scholar
Echikh, K. 1998. Geology and hydrocarbon occurrences in the Ghadames Basin, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya. In Petroleum geology of North Africa (eds McGregor, D. S., Moody, R. T. J. & Clark-Lowes, D. D.), pp. 109–29. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 132.Google Scholar
Fallaw, W. C. 1979. A test of the Simpson coefficient and other binary coefficients of faunal similarity. Journal of Paleontology 53, 1029–34.Google Scholar
Gentil, L. 1918. Notice sur les titres et travaux scientifiques de L. Gentil. Paris: Larose, 132 pp.Google Scholar
Grignani, D., Lanzoni, E. & Elatrash, H. 1991. Palaeozoic and Mesozoic subsurface palynostratigraphy in the Al Kufrah Basin, Libya. In The geology of Libya IV (eds Salem, M. J., Hammuda, O. S. & Eliagoubi, B. A.), pp. 11601227. Amsterdam: Elsevier.Google Scholar
Hibbert, F. A. & Lacey, W. S. 1969. Miospores from the Lower Carboniferous basement beds in the Menai Straits region of Caernarvonshire, north Wales. Palaeontology 12, 420–40.Google Scholar
Hoepffner, C., Houari, M. R. & Bouabdelli, M. 2006. Tectonics of the North African Variscides (Morocco, western Algeria); an outline. Comptes Rendus Geosciences 338, 2540.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hoepffner, C., Soulaimani, A. & Piqué, A. 2005. The Moroccan Hercynides. Journal of African Earth Sciences 43, 144–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Houari, M. R. & Hoepffner, C. 2003. Late Carboniferous dextral wrench-dominated transpression along the North African Craton margin (eastern High-Atlas, Morocco). Journal of African Earth Sciences and the Middle East 37, 1124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Huvelin, P. 1977. Etude géologique et gîtologique du Massif hercynien des Jebilet (Maroc occidental). Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique du Maroc 232, 307 pp.Google Scholar
Jäger, H. 2002. Palynology of the Lower Carboniferous (Mississippian) Kammquartzite Formation in the Rhenohercynian, Germany. Senckenbergiana Lethaea 82, 609–37.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kent, D. V. & Keppie, J. D. 1988. Silurian–Permian palaeocontinental reconstructions and circum-Atlantic tectonics. In The Caledonian–Appalachian Orogen (eds Harris, A. L. & Fettes, D. J.), pp. 469–80. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 38.Google Scholar
Keppie, J. D., Nance, R. D., Murphy, J. B., Dostal, J. & Braid, J. A. 2010. The high-pressure Iberian–Czech belt in the Variscan orogen: extrusion into the upper (Gondwanan) plate? Gondwana Research 17, 306–16, doi:10.1016/j.gr.2009.08.007.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kharbouch, F., Juteau, T., Treuil, M., Joron, J. L., Piqué, A. & Hoepffner, C. 1985. Le volcanisme Dinantien de la Meseta Marocaine Nord-Occidentale et Orientale; caractères pétrographiques et géochimiques et implications géodynamiques. Bulletin des Sciences Géologiques 38, 155–63.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kora, M. 1993. Carboniferous miospore assemblages from the Abu Rodeiyim boreholes, west-central Sinai, Egypt. Revue de Micropaléontologie 36, 235–55.Google Scholar
Lagarde, J. L., Omar, S. A. & Roddaz, B. 1990. Structural characteristics of granitic plutons emplaced during weak regional deformation; examples from Late Carboniferous plutons, Morocco. Journal of Structural Geology 12, 805–21.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loboziak, S. & Clayton, G. 1988. The Carboniferous palynostratigraphy of Northeast Libya. In Subsurface Palynostratigraphy of Northeast Libya (eds El-Arnauti, A., Owens, B. & Thusu, B.), pp. 129–49. Benghazi: Garyounis University Press.Google Scholar
Loboziak, S., Melo, J. H. G. & Streel, M. 1998. Reassessment of Viséan miospore biostratigraphy in the Amazon Basin, northern Brazil. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 104, 143–55.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loboziak, S., Melo, J. H. G. & Streel, M. 2000. Latest Devonian and Early Carboniferous palynostratigraphy of northern Brazil and North Africa: a proposed integration of Western European and Gondwanan miospore biozonations. Bulletin des Centres de Recherches Exploration-Production Elf-Aquitaine 22, 241–59.Google Scholar
Loboziak, S., Streel, M., Caputo, M. V. & Melo, J. H. G. 1991. Evidence of West European defined miospore zones in the uppermost Devonian and Lower Carboniferous of the Amazonas Basin (Brazil). Geobios 24, 511.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Loboziak, S., Streel, M., Caputo, M. V. & Melo, J. H. G. 1992. Middle Devonian to Lower Carboniferous miospore stratigraphy in the Central Parnaíba Basin (Brazil). Annales de la Société Géologique de Belgique 115, 215–26.Google Scholar
Loboziak, S., Vachard, D., Fadli, D. & Streel, M. 1990. Datation par miospores et Foraminifères du Tournaisien et du Viséen de l'Oued Zemrine (Massif des Mdakra, Maroc). Journal of African Earth Sciences 11, 113–18.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Love, L. G. 1960. Assemblages of small spores from the Lower Oil Shale Group of Scotland. Proceedings of the Royal Society of Edinburgh B 67, 99126.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mahdi, S. A. & Butterworth, M. A. 1994. Palynology of the Dinantian Lower Border Group of the Solway Basin. Proceedings of the Yorkshire Geological Society 50, 157–71.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Marhoumi, M. R., Doubinger, J. & Piqué, A. 1984. Études palynostratigraphiques de quelques séries Dinantiennes dans le bassin de Sidi Bettache au SE de Rabat (Maroc). Bulletin des Sciences Géologiques 37, 137–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Massa, D., Coquel, R., Loboziak, S. & Taugourdeau-Lantz, J. 1980. Essai de synthèse stratigraphique et palynologique du Carbonifère en Libye occidentale. Annales de la Société Géologique du Nord 99, 429–42.Google Scholar
Matte, P. 1986. Tectonics and plate tectonics model for the Variscan Belt of Europe. Tectonophysics 126, 329–74.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Matte, P. 2001. The Variscan collage and orogeny (480–290 Ma) and the tectonic definition of the Armorica microplate: a review. Terra Nova 13, 122–8.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McKerrow, W. S., Mac Niocaill, C., Ahlberg, P. E., Clayton, G., Cleal, C. J. & Eagar, R. M. C. 2000. The late Palaeozoic relations between Gondwana and Laurussia. In Orogenic Processes: Quantification and modelling in the Variscan belt (eds Franke, W., Haak, V., Oncken, O. & Tanner, D.), pp. 920. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 179.Google Scholar
Melo, J. H. G. & Loboziak, S. 2000. Viséan miospore biostratigraphy and correlation of the Poti Formation (Parnaíba Basin, northern Brazil). Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 112, 147–65.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Melo, J. H. G. & Loboziak, S. 2003. Devonian–Early Carboniferous miospore biostratigraphy of the Amazon Basin, northern Brazil. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 124, 131202.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Michard, A. 1976. Eléments de Géologie marocaine. Notes et Mémoires du Service Géologique du Maroc 252, 408 pp.Google Scholar
Michard, A., Hoepffner, C., Soulaimani, A. & Baidder, L. 2008. The Variscan Belt. In Continental Evolution: the Geology of Morocco. Structure, Stratigraphy, and Tectonics of the Africa–Atlantic–Mediterranean Triple Junction (eds Michard, A., Saddiqi, O., Chalouan, A. & Frizon de Lamotte, D.), pp. 65132. Lecture Notes in Earth Sciences, 116. Berlin: Springer-Verlag.Google Scholar
Moreno, C., Sáez, R., González, F., Almodóvar, G., Toscano, M., Playford, G., Alansari, A., Rziki, S. & Bajddi, A. 2008. Age and depositional environment of the Draa Sfar massive sulfide deposit, Morocco. Mineralium Deposita 43, 891911.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Nance, R. D., Gutiérrez-Alonso, G., Keppie, J. D., Linnemann, U., Murphy, J. B., Quesada, C., Strachan, R. A. & Woodcock, N. 2010. Evolution of the Rheic Ocean. Gondwana Research 17, 194222, doi: 10.1016/j.gr.2009.08.001.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neugebauer, J. 1988. The Variscan plate tectonic evolution; an improved ‘Iapetus model’. Schweizerische Mineralogische und Petrographische Mitteilungen 68, 313–33.Google Scholar
Neves, R., Gueinn, K. J., Clayton, G., Ioannides, N. S., Neville, R. S. W. & Kruszewska, K. 1973. Palynological correlations within the Lower Carboniferous of Scotland and Northern England. Transactions of the Royal Society of Edinburgh 69, 2370.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Neves, R. & Ioannides, N. S. 1974. Palynology of the Lower Carboniferous (Dinantian) of the Spilmersford Borehole, East Lothian, Scotland. Bulletin of the Geological Survey of Great Britain 45, 7397.Google Scholar
Neville, R. S. W. 1968. Ranges of selected spores in the Upper Viséan of the East Fife coast section between St. Monance and Pittenweem. Pollen et Spores 10, 431–62.Google Scholar
Ouarhache, D., Baudelot, S., Charriere, A., Perret, M. F. & Vachard, D. 1991. Nouvelles datations micropaléontologiques et palynologiques dans le Viséen de la bordure nord-occidentale du Causse moyen-atlasique (Maroc). Géologie Méditerranéenne 18, 4359.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Owens, B., Mclean, D., Simpson, K. R., Shell, P. M. & Robinson, R. 2005. Reappraisal of the Mississippian palynostratigraphy of the East Fife coast, Scotland, United Kingdom. Palynology 29, 2347.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pereira, Z. 1999. Palinostratigrafia do Sector Sudoeste da Zona Sul Portuguesa. Comunicações do Instituto Geológico e Mineiro 86, 2558.Google Scholar
Pereira, Z., Oliveira, V. & Oliveira, J. T. 2006: Palynostratigraphy of the Toca da Moura and Cabrela Complexes, Ossa Morena Zone, Portugal. Geodynamic implications. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 139, 227–40.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piqué, A. 1975. Différenciation des aires de sédimentation au Nord-Ouest de la Meseta marocaine; la distension Devóno-Dinantienne. Comptes rendus de l'Académie des Sciences de Paris 281, 767–70.Google Scholar
Piqué, A. 1979. Evolution structurale d'un segment de la chaîne hercynienne: La Meseta marocaine nord-occidentale. Sciences Géologiques, Mémoires 56, 243 pp.Google Scholar
Piqué, A. 1989. Variscan terranes in Morocco. Geological Society of America, Special Paper 230, 115–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piqué, A. 2001. Geology of Northwest Africa. Berlin: Gebrüder Borntraeger, 310 pp.Google Scholar
Piqué, A., Bossière, G., Boulin, J. P., Chalouan, A. & Hoepffner, C. 1993. Southern margin of the Variscan Belt: the north-western Gondwana mobile zone (eastern Morocco and northern Algeria). Geologische Rundschau 82, 432–9.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Piqué, A. & Michard, A. 1989. Moroccan Hercynides; a synopsis; the Paleozoic sedimentary and tectonic evolution at the northern margin of West Africa. American Journal of Science 289, 286330.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Playford, G., González, F., Moreno, C. & Al Ansari, A. 2008. Palynostratigraphy of the Sarhlef Series (Mississippian), Jebilet Massif, Morocco. Micropaleontology 54, 89124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rahmani-Antari, K. & Lachkar, G. 2001. Contribution à l'étude biostratigraphique du Dévonien et du Carbonifère de la plate-forme marocaine. Datation et corrélations. Revue de Micropaléontologie 44, 159–83.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ravn, R. L., McPhilemy, B., Rutherford, M., Talli, S. & Bahra, G. 1994. Late Devonian and Early Carboniferous palynostratigraphy and its applications in northeastern Syria. In Micropalaeontology and Hydrocarbon Exploration in the Middle East (ed. Simmons, M. D.), pp. 521. London: Chapman and Hall.Google Scholar
Robardet, M. 2003. The Armorica ‘microplate’; fact or fiction? Critical review of the concept and contradictory palaeobiogeographical data. Palaeogeography, Palaeoclimatology, Palaeoecology 195, 125–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Rodríguez, R., Medina, P., González Lodeiro, F., Martín, L. M., Martínez, D. & Matas, J. 2007. Microflora y conodontos del Mississippiense en la Fm. Gévora (núcleo del sinforme la Codosera-Puebla de Obando, SO de la Zona Centroibérica). Revista de la Sociedad Geológica de España 20, 7188.Google Scholar
Rowell, A. J., McBride, D. J. & Palmer, A. R. 1973. Quantitative study of Trempealeauian (Latest Cambrian) trilobite distribution in North America. Geological Society of America Bulletin 84, 3429–42.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scotese, C. R. 2004. A continental drift flipbook. Journal of Geology 112, 729–41.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Scotese, C. R. & McKerrow, W. S. 1990. Revised world maps and introduction. In Palaeozoic Palaeogeography and Biogeography (eds McKerrow, W. S. & Scotese, C. R.), pp. 121. Geological Society of London, Memoir no. 12.Google Scholar
Simancas, J. F., Tahiri, A., Azor, A., González Lodeiro, F., Martínez Poyatos, D. J. & El Hadi, H. 2005. The tectonic frame of the Variscan–Alleghanian Orogen in Southern Europe and Northern Africa. Tectonophysics 398, 181–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simancas, J. F., Azor, A., Martínez Poyatos, D., Tahiri, A., El Hadi, H., González Lodeiro, F., Pérez Estaún, A. & Carbonell, R. 2009. Tectonic relationships of Southwest Iberia with the allochthons of Northwest Iberia and the Moroccan Variscides. Comptes Rendus Geosciences 341, 103–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simpson, G. G. 1960. Notes on the measurement of faunal resemblance. American Journal of Science 25, 300–11.Google Scholar
Smith, A. H. V. & Butterworth, M. A. 1967. Miospores in the coal seams of the Carboniferous of Great Britain. Special Papers in Palaeontology 1, 1324.Google Scholar
Stampfli, G. M. 2000. Tethyan oceans. In Tectonics and Magmatism in Turkey and Surrounding Area (eds Bozkurt, E., Winchester, J. A. & Piper, J. D. A.), pp. 163–85. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 173.Google Scholar
Stampfli, G. M. & Borel, G. D. 2002. A plate tectonic model for the Paleozoic and Mesozoic constrained by dynamic plate boundaries and restored synthetic oceanic isochrones. Earth and Planetary Science Letters 196, 1733.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Stampfi, G. M., Von Raumer, J. F. & Borel, G. D. 2002. Paleozoic evolution of pre-Variscan terranes: From Gondwana to the Variscan collision In Variscan–Appalachian dynamics: The building of the late Paleozoic basement (eds Martínez Catalán, J. R., Hatcher, R. D. Jr, Arenas, R. & Díaz García, F.), pp. 263–80. Geological Society of America, Special Paper no. 364. Boulder, Colorado.Google Scholar
Sullivan, H. J. 1964. Miospores from the Drybrook Sandstone and associated measures in the Forest of Dean Basin, Gloucestershire. Palaeontology 7, 351–92.Google Scholar
Sullivan, H. J. 1965. Palynological evidence concerning the regional differentiation of upper Mississippian floras. Pollen et Spores 7, 539–63.Google Scholar
Sullivan, H. J. 1967. Regional differences in Mississippian spore assemblages. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 1, 185–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Sullivan, H. J. & Marshall, A. E. 1966. Viséan spores from Scotland. Micropaleontology 12, 265–85.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tahiri, A., Montero, P., El Hadi, H., Martínez Poyatos, D., Azor, A., Bea, F., Simancas, J. F. & González Lodeiro, F. 2010. Geochronological data on the Rabat–Tiflet granitoids: their bearing on the tectonics of the Moroccan Variscides. Journal of African Earth Sciences 57, 113, doi:10.1016/j.jafrearsci.2009.07.005.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tait, J. A., Bachtadse, V., Franke, W. & Soffel, H. 1997. Geodynamic evolution of the European Variscan fold belt: palaeomagnetic and geological constraints. Geologische Rundschau 86, 585–98.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tait, J. A., Schätz, M., Bachtadse, V. & Soffel, H. 2000. Palaeomagnetism and Palaeozoic palaeogeography of Gondwana and European terranes. In Orogenic Processes: Quantification and modeling in the Variscan Belt (eds Franke, W., Haak, V., Oncken, O. & Tanner, D.), pp. 2134. Geological Society of London, Special Publication no. 179.Google Scholar
Turner, N., Spinner, E. & Dorning, K. J. 1995. A palynological study of the Lower Carboniferous Lydebrook Sandstone and adjacent late Wenlock and Langsettian strata, Shropshire, England. Review of Palaeobotany and Palynology 84, 305–29.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Van der Voo, R. 1993. Paleomagnetism of the Atlantic, Tethys and Iapetus oceans. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 421 pp.Google Scholar
Weil, A. B., Van der Voo, R. & van der Pluijm, B. A. 2001, Oroclinal bending and evidence against the Pangea megashear: the Cantabria-Asturias Arc (northern Spain): Geology 29, 991–4.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wendt, J. 1985. Disintegration of the continental margin of northwestern Gondwana; Late Devonian of the eastern Anti-Atlas (Morocco). Geology 13, 815–18.2.0.CO;2>CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ziegler, P. A. 1989. Evolution of Laurussia: A study in Late Palaeozoic plate tectonics. Hingham, MA: Kluwer Academic Publishers, 102 pp.Google Scholar