Abstract: About 98 species of fossil spores and pollen referred to 55 genera from the Upper Carboniferous Yanghugou Formation in Zhongwei, Ningxia have been studied. Two sporopollen assemblage zones are recognized in ascending order as follows: 1. Laevigatosporites medius-Cyclogranisporites aureus (MA) zone: This assemblage corresponds to the lower part of the Yanghugou Formation, and is characterized by the predominance of pteridophyfic spores and the relative abundance of gymnospermous pollen. Azonotriletes and monoletes are dominant, while zonates are of importance. The most common species are Leiotriletes spp., Cyclogranisporites aureus Potoni6 et Kremp, Granulatisporites granulatus Ibrahim, Microreticulatisporites concavus Butterworth et Williams, M. nobilis (Welcher) Knox, Triquitrites bransonii Wilson et Hoffmeister, Dictyotriletes bireticulatus (Ibrahim) Smith et Butterworth, Ahrensisporites guerickei (Horst) Potonie et Kremp, Lycospora spp., Crassispora kosankei (Potonie et Kremp) Bharadwaj, Cirratriradites saturni (Ibrahim) Schopf, Wilson et Bentall, Laevigatosporites spp., Columinisporites ovalis Peppers, Florinites junior Potnie et Kremp and Vesicaspora wilsonii (Schemel) Wilson et Venkatachata. This assemblage is comparable with those of the Yanghugou Formation in Baiyantaohai of Inner Mongolia (Yu, 1983), the 8th zone of North China by Gao (1979), the Triquitrites sinani-Cirratriradites saturni (SS) Zone and the Microreticulatisporites nobilis-Florinites junior (NJ) Zone of West Europe, which are considered corresponding to Westphatian A-B in age. 2. Torispora seuris-Punctatisporites hians (SH) zone: This assemblage is equivalent to the upper part of the Yanghugou Formation, and is also characterized by dominance of pteridophytic spores and subdominance of gymospermous pollen. In addition to the most commen species mentioned above, the important taxas in the present assemblage comprise Punctatisporites hians Wang, Gulisporites cochlearius Imgrund, Verrucosisporites kaipingiensis Imgrund, Endosporites globiformis (Ibrahim) Schopf, Wilson et Bentall, Densosporites anulatus (Loose) Smith et Butterworth, D. reticuloides Ouyang et Li, Simozonotriletes labellatus Wang, Torispora securis Balme, Thymospora thiessenii (Kosanke) Wilson et Venkatachala, Pit yos porites west phalensis Williams and Plat ysaccus, Illinites, C ycadopites, etc. This zone compares closely with those of the upper part of the Yanghugou Formation in Hengshanbu (Wang Hui, 1984) and Ordos Basin (Geng, 1985), the Benxi Formation in Shanxi (Liao, 1987; Ouyang and Li, 1980; Gao, 1979), as welll as Torispora securis-T, laevigata (SL) Zone and Thymospora obscura-T, thiessenii (OT) Zone of West Europe. Therefore, the present SH Zone should be referred to Westphalian C-D in age. The Westphalian palynofiora in Zhongwei is dominated by Filicopsida and pteridospermopsida; Sphenopsida and lycopsida occupy the subdominant position, while Cordaitopsida and Coniferopsida do not develop well. This palynofiora indicates a tropical-subtropical warm and humid paleoclimate.

Key words: Yanghugou Formation, Sporo-pollen assemblages, Westphalian, Paleoclimate, Zhongwei in Ningxia