World's smallest snake found in Barbados

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The snake named Leptotyphlops carlae as thin as a spaghetti noodle is resting on a US quarter. Blair Hedges professor of biology at Penn State University discovered the species and determined that it is the smallest of the more than 3100 known snake ...
The snake named Leptotyphlops carlae, as thin as a spaghetti noodle, is resting on a US quarter. Blair Hedges, professor of biology at Penn State University, discovered the species and determined that it is the smallest of the more than 3,100 known snake species. Image: Blair Hedges, Penn State
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(PhysOrg.com) -- The world's smallest species of snake, with adults averaging just under four inches in length, has been identified on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The species -- which is as thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to rest comfortably on a U.S. quarter --was discovered by Blair Hedges, an evolutionary biologist at Penn State. Hedges and his colleagues also are the discoverers of the world's smallest frog and lizard species, which too were found on Caribbean islands. The most recent discovery will be published on 4 August 2008 in the journal Zootaxa.


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