In amber, a fossil was found that surprisingly looks like a praying mantis

Amber has been studied using a combination of techniques including microscopy and X-ray microtomography, where

X-rays are used to create a cross-section and 3D model of the body.

The most common type of insect found in amber is the laceworm. Lace bugs belong to the family of hemiptera from the suborder of bugs.

During the study of a piece of succinite, for the first time,a specimen almost 2 centimeters long was found, not in the usual form of a lace maker, with large eyes and four long wings, but with grasping or predatory legs, which make it very similar to a praying mantis.

Lacemakers have a long history of resemblingpraying mantis. This is the result of something called convergent evolution, where two organisms develop similar traits because they adapt to similar conditions. The fossil record of lacewing mantises (or Mantispida) dates back to the Cretaceous period, dating back 145 million years.

However, this is the first adult praying mantis fossil found in the Cenozoic (or current) geologic era.

“Here we report the first adultMantispidae from Baltic amber and put it into a broader framework regarding the quantitative morphology of carnivorous forelimbs across the line in terms of existing and extinct diversity,” the researchers write in their published paper.

Examination of the fossil revealed that it is very similar to the extant genus Mantispa, but is covered with a white film, a common feature in Baltic amber fossils.

The study raises a number of questions about howpraying mantises may have evolved in the last 66 million years - when the Cenozoic period began - and why so few of them survive from this particular era. During the study, scientists noticed a trend: a decrease in the diversity of mantis legs since the Cretaceous period.

The data presented here illustratea striking decline in the morphological diversity of praying mantises during the Cretaceous and Cenozoic periods,” the researchers conclude. "This trend illustrates another case of a dramatic decline in morphological diversity in the Neuroptera subgroup."

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