Cenomanian (Late Cretaceous) siliceous sponges from Nezvys'ko and Rakovets' (Pokuttian Podillia, western Ukraine)

•Thirty-one sponge species from Cenomanian of Podillia, Ukraine, are described.•Sponges include 11 species of Hexactinosida, 19 of Lychniscosida, one of lithistida.•The Pokuttia–Podillian sponges show taxonomic similarity to the Cenomanian sponges of England.•The sponges inhabited the deeper parts of the shelf sea.

A taxonomic description of newly collected phosphatizated sponges from the Cenomanian strata of Nezvys'ko and Rakovets' (Pokuttian Podillia, western Ukraine) is presented. The sponge assemblage comprises almost only hexactinellids. The sponges described comprise eleven species belonging to the order Hexactinosida, nineteen species to the order Lychniscosida and one lithistid demosponge species to the suborder Tetracladina, all of which were previously known from the Cretaceous of Europe. Twenty-three species are described from the Cenomanian of Pokuttian Podillia for the first time. The rich assemblage of sponges inhabited the deeper parts of a shelf sea, where the slow sedimentation rate and reduced turbulence favoured their development. Most have a basal plate and were attached to a hard substrate, e.g. on the skeletons of other siliceous sponges or hard skeletons of other animals.