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How does the European Carboniferous division differ from the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian division?
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Carboniferous Period
Distribution of landmasses, mountainous regions, shallow seas, and deep ocean basins during the late Carboniferous Period. Included in the paleogeographic reconstruction are the locations of the interval's subduction zones.
The Carboniferous Period is formally divided into two major subperiods by international agreement: the Mississippian (358.9 to 323.2 million years ago) and the Pennsylvanian (323.2 to 298.9 million years ago).1
In Europe, the Carboniferous is instead subdivided into the Dinantian and the succeeding Silesian subsystems. These European divisions differ from the international standard because the boundary between the Dinantian and the Silesian occurs below the internationally accepted boundary that separates the Mississippian and Pennsylvanian subperiods.1