Graptolite Net            Graptolites & Graptoliters                          
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
Diagnosis (Ruedemann, 1947, p.255). "Slender dendroid rhabdosomes lacking projecting thecae, the latter being
marked by pits - but bearing separate conical appendages."
Synonyms: Dendrograptus Gurley, Walcott, Ami, Ulrich (all of the partim), Psilophyton Lesquereux (partim),
Phycograptus Gurley (partim).
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.
Selected Publications

Andres, D. 1980. Feinstrukturen und Verwandschaftbeziehungen der Graptolithen. - Paläontologische Zeitschrift 54, 129-170.
Obut, A.M. & Sobolevskaya, R.F.1967. Some stereostolonates of the late Cambrian and Ordovician of Norilsk Region. - Akademia Nauk
SSSR, Sibirskoye Otdelenye, Institut Geologii i Geofiziki, p. 45-64.
Ruedemann, R. 1908. Graptolites of New York. Pt. II Graptolites of the Higher Beds.- New York State Memoirs7, 4-583.
Ruedemann, R. 1947. The Graptolites of North America. - Memoirs Geological Society of America 19, 1-652.