Carboniferous graptolites (Hemichordata: Graptolithina) from the Dnipro-Donets Depression and Donets Basin, Ukraine

Remains of the Carboniferous graptolites ?Ptiograptus sp. and Dictyonema sp. are described from the Donets Basin and the border zone of the Dnipro-Donets Depression and Donets Basin (eastern Ukraine). These graptolites were found in the Mezhova (Visean, Mississippian) and Avilovka (Kasimovian, Pennsylvanian) formations. Dictyonema sp. from the Avilovka Formation is probably the youngest dendroid graptolite to date. The analysis of geological data allowed to make a reasonable assumption about the Late Devonian rather than the Carboniferous age of the graptolite fauna from the Englewood Formation of South Dakota (USA) and the Tournaisian rather than the Cisuralian age of graptolites from Hainan Island in China.