Manipulator (insect)

Manipulator modificaputis is a predatory cockroach which lived during the Upper Cretaceous period. The holotype specimen is fossilized in a 100-million-year-old piece of amber, which was found in a quarry of volcanoclastic mudstone (a sedimentary rock) at Noije Bum in the Hukawng Valley in Myanmar. The insect has been described by Peter Vršanský, of the Geological Institute SAS of Bratislava, and by Günter Bechly, of the Staatliches Museum für Naturkunde in Stuttgart.[1]

The cockroach was found to have an elongated neck, a freely rotating head and unexpectedly long legs, which are indicative of a predatory lifestyle.[2] The insect body is 4.5 millimetres (0.18 in) long and 2 millimetres (0.079 in) wide.

The authors erected a new family, "Manipulatoridae," after examining the specimen on the basis of "the unique habitus with numerous autapomorphies along with several plesiomorphies."[3] Four other specimens, including that of a juvenile were discovered from the Myanmar amber mines.[3]

This species was found along with dozens of other extinct species of insects fully preserved in amber, making Noije Bum in the Hukawng Valley region one of the most important regions for amber fossils containing fully preserved insects.[4] It is part of a family of cockroaches that regularly hunted prey. Dozens of other preserved insects were found in the area in Noije Bum, where the fossilized remains of the extinct species were also found. Only one group closely related to this species survives today, the praying mantis.

This species belonged to the invertebrate fauna of the ancient amber forest of the Myanmar region.[5]