IGCP 469 - Late Westphalian terrestrial biotas and environments of the Variscan Foreland and adjacent intramontane basins

Abstract

This five-year project is to investigate the palaeoecological changes in Europe and North America that resulted from the Variscan Orogeny (late Westphalian-early Stephanian). In particular, we will be looking at the pattern of disruption to the lowland palaeotropical swamp habitats and the development of intramontane basins within the adjoining Variscan Mountains. The project will integrate data from the sedimentological and fossil record. Evidence of sedimentological changes that took place in the different basins will be collated and compared, especially those changes that affected drainage patterns and water-table levels. An integrated palaeofloristic database is to be developed for each of the main late Westphalian and earliest Stephanian coal basins in the study area, and investigated by multivariate statistical analysis. Palynology will be used to investigate overall changes in the palaeotropical vegetation. Terrestrial faunas of this age are on the whole limited, but where available we will integrate palaeozoological data, especially from insects, arachnids and vertebrates (including tracks). The resulting synthesis will provide the most complete environmental picture to date of these Variscan-affected habitats, and will have important consequences for our understanding of the evolution of the Variscan Orogeny.