I saw an article on a mantis encased in Amber that’s 30 million years old. assuming mantis reproduce once a year, this thing is like 30 million generations removed from a modern mantis. It might not even be able to reproduce with a modern mantis Even if it does look exactly the same.
I looked into humans as a comparison and even 10 million years ago, the modern human didn’t even exist. there’s a good chance we’re too separated from them to reproduce or even be considered the same species. so wouldn’t that also apply to this 30 million year old mantis.
In: Biology
according to the wikipedia page, there are more than 2,400 species of modern “Mantis” insects. Its not 1 species. Likely the amber one is a different species than the current ones, but it is more like saying “We found a fish” than it is “We found a dog!” Mantis is a general classification, not a specific species. This is similar to most insects. There are 17,500 species of butterfly, 22,000 species of ant, 1,000 species of wasps, etc. Insects just love similar but different species.
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