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World’s Smallest Snake: Island Resident with Equally Miniature Relatives
So far, approximately 3,100 species of snakes have been described. They occur on all continents except Antarctica, from Scandinavia to Tasmania. Among them are species as diverse as the 8-meter-long green anaconda and our hero, the smallest snake in the world.
Currently, the smallest snake in the world is considered to be the species Leptotyphlops carlae discovered in 2008 on the Caribbean island of Barbados. In some studies, it is also known as Tetracheilostoma carlae. The snake does not yet have a Polish name.
The smallest snake in the world — dimensions
An adult is the size of an average earthworm — about 10 cm long and the width of spaghetti. This is how it was described by its discoverer, American herpetologist Prof. Stephen Blair Hedges from Pennsylvania State University. The reptile weighs around 0.6 grams. Besides Barbados, its presence has also been confirmed on another Caribbean island — Anguilla.
Interestingly, this snake had been described in scientific literature twice before: in 1889 and 1963, but it was misclassified. Preserved specimens were also found in the collections of the Natural History Museum in London and in Martinique. For several decades, it was not encountered in the wild until 2008.
