Upper carboniferous conodont zones of Russia and their global correlation

The last decade has been marked by significant progress in the study of the stratigraphic ranges of the conodonts characteristic of the Kasimovian and Gzhelian stages in shallow-water sediments of the type sections in the Moscow Basin and the deeper facies of the South Urals. This paper discusses the history of studies of the Upper Carboniferous conodont zonation in Russia and abroad, and proposes a refined zonal conodont scale for the Kasimovian and Gzhelian stages, which may be included, as a standard, into the general Carboniferous scale of Russia. In this scale, the Kasimovian and Gzhelian stages correspond respectively to six (subexcelsus, makhlinae, sagittalis, cancellosus, toretzianus, firmus) and five (simulator, vitali, virgilicus, bellus, wabaunsensis) zones. The proposed scale works for the entire East European Platform and the Urals from the Novaya Zemlya Archipelago in the north to the Mugodzhary Mountains in the south. These regions of Russia are occupied by Upper Carboniferous marine facies. At several levels (especially in the Gzhelian Stage), the scale reliably correlates with zones of the Missourian and Virgilian stages in North America and also Dalaun and Mapingian stages in China.