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Barbados Threadsnake — printable fact sheet
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Barbados Threadsnake
Tetracheilostoma carlae
The Barbados threadsnake is the smallest snake in the world: an adult is about 10 cm long and roughly as thick as a strand of spaghetti, and one can coil comfortably on a US quarter. It was described only in 2008, by Blair Hedges, from specimens including one that had been sitti…
Did you know?
- Despite being a snake, its eyes are almost vestigial and it relies heavily on its sense of smell and touch to navigate underground.
- Threadsnakes have vestigial pelvic remnants, hinting at their ancestors' hind limbs. They are so small and worm-like that they are routinely mistaken for earthworms, and the easiest tell is that a threadsnake has scales and a flicking tongue. The species is thought to be at severe risk simply because so little of its habitat remains, and it may occupy a total area of a few square kilometres.
What I learned
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