Santanmantis

Santanmantis is an extinct genus of mantises, the sole genus in the family Santanmantidae. The only species, Santanmantis axelrodi , is known from the Crato Formation of Brazil, dating to the late Aptian stage of the Early Cretaceous.^[1][2][3] It is amongst the most primitive known lineages of mantis.^[4] Like other mantises, the forelegs are modified into spined raptorial appendages. When describing a new specimen in 2017, Hörnig, Haug and Haug proposed that the second set of legs also had spines similar to the forelegs, and also served a raptorial function, but that they were not visible in the fossil due to being broken off.^[5] However a response to this paper criticised this assumption, finding that it had little evidence from the fossil itself or from living mantises.^[6]

Santanmantis Temporal range: Aptian PreꞒ Ꞓ O S D C P T J K Pg N
Specimen MB.I.2068
Life restoration (Note: the spines on the second set of legs have been considered questionable by other authors)
Scientific classification
Domain:	Eukaryota
Kingdom:	Animalia
Phylum:	Arthropoda
Class:	Insecta
Order:	Mantodea
Family:	†Santanmantidae Grimaldi 2003
Genus:	†Santanmantis Grimaldi, 2003
Species:	†S. axelrodi
Binomial name
†Santanmantis axelrodi Grimaldi, 2003