New Delhi, Nov. 14 -- A praying mantis preserved in amber for about 98 million years had leaf-like extensions on its abdomen, offering the earliest clear fossil evidence of plant-leaf mimicry in mantises, according to ScienceAlert.

Researchers named the species Folimantis hyalinala in a study published in New Phytologist. Its abdominal structures resemble the leaves of the extinct plant Selaginella grimaldii, also known from amber found in the same region of what is now Myanmar.

Leaf-like anatomy, not actual leaves

The fossil's unusual features are extensions of the insect's body, rather than plant leaves attached to it. Its transparent wings leave the leaf-like abdominal structures visible.

The genus name Folimantis means leaf mantis...