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
Adaptation and evolution is driven by a changing environment. We evolved relatively rapidly due to (so says the current theory) changing environments, diets and other factors.
Arthropods (bugs, crabs, etc.) have been able to survive myriad circumstances with their bodies being as they are, so they haven’t needed to adapt as much. Now, is that mantis in amber the same, genetically, as a modern, living mantis? Likely not, but we don’t know.
Consider sharks, tortoises, turtles, tuataras, and many insects that have gone relatively unchanged for hundreds of millions of years. They found what works for them and haven’t really needed to change. Then on the opposite end of adaptation, you have the modern bird which was not much more than a gliding dinosaur 65 million years ago. At that same time, our ancestors were barely rodents.
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