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The Zoophycos group of trace fossils is common in Carboniferous to recent marine strata and sediments, and is a common component of ichnofaunas in the Visean and Namurian stages of England and Wales. A review of new and published records indicates that it is often present in limestones and sandstones of Chadian to Arnsbergian age. Thereafter it is less common, and restricted to clastic rocks. There are no known records within Carboniferous strata above the lowest Westphalian. The form is most common and often abundant in limestones of the Yoredale facies in the upper Visean and lower Namurian stages of northern England, particularly so in northern Northumberland. Where detailed sedimentological data exist, they indicate that the organisms responsible for the Zoophycos group burrowed into unconsolidated carbonate substrate that was deposited under low accumulation rates, often affected by storm wave action and where seawater flow provided a nutrient supply. However, in mixed carbonate–clastic settings, the deep-tier nature of Zoophycos may indicate that the organism lived in overlying shallow-marine, clastic-dominated depositional environments and burrowed down into the carbonate substrate. The same may be true of siliciclastic depositional settings where the presence of Zoophycos in some sandstones may reflect the palaeoenvironment of the overlying, finer-grained transgressive marine (prodelta and distal mouth bar) deposits. Supplementary material: A spreadsheet with details of Carboniferous records of Zoophycos group fossils from England, Wales, the Isle of Man and the North Sea is available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4994636

Miospores from the clastic intervals between the Robinson Limestone and the Peghorn Limestone in the Brigantian (Mississippian) stratotype section at Janny Wood, Cumbria, are assigned to the Tripartites vetustus–Rotaspora fracta (VF) Assemblage Biozone. The species Murospora parthenopia , normally considered to be restricted to the underlying Raistrickia nigra–Triquitrites marginatus (NM) Biozone, is also recorded. Tripartites vetustus is recorded from the stratigraphically deepest sample, meaning that the base of the VF Biozone lies within the Asbian and not at the base of the Brigantian. The base of the VF Biozone cannot be proven in Janny Wood. A review of independent palaeontological controls on the age of the first appearance of T. vetustus in Britain indicates a lack of stratigraphical precision at the local level. Supplementary material: A full biostratigraphical range chart and a spreadsheet of biostratigraphical data are available at https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.c.4199306