Borneo Snail Sets World Record for Tiniest Snail Species
Posted on November 4, 2015
The world record for the tiniest snail species has been broken again with the discovery of tiny snails in Borneo. In September, scientists discovered the world's smallest land snail species in China with a shell of just 0.86 mm in height. Now, even smaller snails in Borneo have shells with an average diameter of just 0.7 mm.
48 new snail species were discovered by Dutch and Malaysian biologists in Borneo in the new report. The smallest of the newly discovered species, Acmella nana, is the world's tiniest snail. It has a hell of 0.50 - 0.60 mm width and 0.60 - 0.79 mm height. The graphic above shows Acmella nana hiding among the small print of the ZooKey's research paper where it is described.
The researchers say some of the 48 news Borneo snail species described are widespread in Borneo while others are far more remote. The exist on excluded mountain tops or in rare types of vegetation. Seven of the new species can only be found on the 4,095-meter-high Mount Kinabalu. Another new species, Diplommatina tylocheilos, only lives at the entrance of the hardly accessible Loloposon Cave in Mount Trusmadi.
Study co-author Menno Schilthuizen says in a statement, "A blazing forest fire at Loloposon Cave could wipe out the entire population of Diplommatina tylocheilos."
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