Mastigograptus Ruedemann, 1908 |
"Much-branched, dendroid rhabdosome with slender, dense-walled stipe (?stolothecae) and thin-walled, conical thecae apparently uncluding autothecae and bithecae, budding in triads but arrangement uncertain and little difference between auto- and bithecae; fusellar structure with complete rings and oblique sutures." O.M.B. Bulman (1970) in "Treatise on Invertebrate Paleontology", V56. |
Type species: Dendrograptus tenuiramosus Walcott, 1883 |
Species: Mastigograptus arundinaceus (Hall, 1847) Mastigograptus? beachi Decker, 1935 Mastigograptus circinalis Ruedemann, 1908 Mastigograptus datzenkoi Obut & Sobolevskaya, 1967 Mastigograptus delicatissimus Ruedemann, 1947 Mastigograptus? flaccidus Ruedemann, 1908 Mastigograptus gracillimus (Lesquereux, 1878) Mastigograptus laevis (Hall, 1847) Mastigograptus levisensis Ruedemann, 1947 Mastigograptus macrotheca Ruedemann, 1947 Mastigograptus multifasciatus Ruedemann, 1947 Mastigograptus orientalis Obut, 1964 Mastigograptus perexilis Ruedemann, 1947 Mastigograptus quadribranchiatus Fritz, 1923 Mastigograptus? siluricus Boucek, 1957 Mastigograptus simplex (Walcott, 1879) Mastigograptus strictus Ruedemann, 1947 Mastigograptus tenuiramosus (Walcott, 1881) |
Class Graptolithoidea, Order Mastigograptida, Family Mastigograptidae |
Several conflicting opinions about the affinity of Mastigograptus have been published and its systematic position remained unclear. It was interpreted as a member of the Dendroidea, Dithecoidea, Tuboidea, or Mastigograptida. Bulman (1970) considered it to be a graptolite incertae sedis. |
Images of three Ordovician species of Mastigograptus: 1-3. M. arundinaceus; 4-13. M. tenuiramosus; 14-16. M. simplex. From Ruedemann (1947). |
Distribution. Upper Cambrian - Silurian; North America, Siberia, Europe. Obut & Sobolevskaya (1967) strongly questioned the afiliation of specimens from Ordovician Baltic drift boulders with the genus Mastigograptus. |