Bashkirian Rugosa (Anthozoa) from the Donets Basin (Ukraine). Part 12. Concluding considerations

Abstract

Mississippian/Pennsylvanian turnover during the Eumorphoceras / Homalophyllites–Hudsonoceras Zone, as postulated earlier (Fedorowski 1981a). The deterioration of rugose corals, globally diverse in time and space in the late Viséan and Serpukhovian, has resulted in the patchy distribution of survivors and newcomers, present in the Bashkirian. Difficulties in inter-basinal communication and the isolation of some sites have resulted in a different content of Bashkirian Rugosa in particular patches, with only rare genera in common. New data has made it possible to document the appearance of the first late Carboniferous genera in the Donets Basin as early as the lower Voznessenkian Horizon (= lower Chokierian Substage), i.e., close to the beginning of the Bashkirian Stage. The two stages of diversification, established in the Bashkirian rugose corals of the Donets Basin, cannot find their counterparts elsewhere. A palaeogeographic overview of the most important sites of diversified rugose corals documents the need to re-examine many taxa, which should be based on complete specimen studies. This and the precise placement of taxa in the modern stratigraphy must be done in order to make rugose corals globally comparable. Simple repetitions of names, commonly used in general summaries, is strongly misleading in both stratigraphic and palaeogeographic reconstructions.