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The Hindu
3 days ago
- Science
- The Hindu
World's smallest known snake makes big comeback
For nearly two decades, no one had spotted the world's smallest-known snake. Some scientists worried that maybe the Barbados threadsnake had become extinct, but one sunny morning, Connor Blades lifted a rock in a tiny forest in the eastern Caribbean island and held his breath. 'After a year of searching, you begin to get a little pessimistic,' said Blades, project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados. The snake can fit comfortably on a coin, so it was able to elude scientists for almost 20 years. Too tiny to identify with the naked eye, Blades placed it in a small glass jar and added soil, substrate and leaf litter. Several hours later, in front of a microscope at the University of the West Indies, Blades looked at the specimen. It wriggled in the petri dish, making it nearly impossible to identify. 'It was a struggle,' Blades recalled, adding that he shot a video of the snake and finally identified it thanks to a still image. It had pale yellow dorsal lines running through its body, and its eyes were located on the side of its head. 'I tried to keep a level head,' Blades recalled, knowing that the Barbados threadsnake looks very much like a Brahminy blind snake, best known as the flower pot snake, which is a bit longer and has no dorsal lines. On Wednesday, the Re:wild conservation group, which is collaborating with the local environment ministry, announced the rediscovery of the Barbados threadsnake. 'Rediscovering one of our endemics on many levels is significant,' said Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for Re:wild who helped rediscover the snake along with Blades. 'It reminds us that we still have something important left that plays an important role in our ecosystem.' The Barbados threadsnake has only been seen a handful of times since 1889. It was on a list of 4,800 plant, animal and fungi species that Re:wild described as 'lost to science.' The snake is blind, burrows in the ground, eats termites and ants and lays one single, slender egg. Fully grown, it measures up to four inches (10 centimeters). 'They're very cryptic,' Blades said. 'You can do a survey for a number of hours, and even if they are there, you may actually not see them.' But on March 20 at around 10:30 a.m., Blades and Springer surrounded a jack-in-the-box tree in central Barbados and started looking under rocks while the rest of the team began measuring the tree, whose distribution is very limited in Barbados. 'That's why the story is so exciting,' Springer said. 'It all happened around the same time.' S. Blair Hedges, a professor at Temple University and director of its center for biology, was the first to identify the Barbados threadsnake. Previously, it was mistakenly lumped in with another species. In 2008, Hedges' discovery was published in a scientific journal, with the snake baptized Tetracheilostoma carlae, in honor of his wife. 'I spent days searching for them,' Hedges recalled. 'Based on my observations and the hundreds of rocks, objects that I turned over looking for this thing without success, I do think it is a rare species.' That was June 2006, and there were only three other such specimens known at the time: two at a London museum and a third at a museum collection in California that was wrongly identified as being from Antigua instead of Barbados, Hedges said. Hedges said that he didn't realize he had collected a new species until he did a genetic analysis. 'The aha moment was in the laboratory,' he said, noting that the discovery established the Barbados threadsnake as the world's smallest-known snake. Hedges then became inundated for years with letters, photographs and emails from people thinking they had found more Barbados threadsnakes. Some of the pictures were of earthworms, he recalled. 'It was literally years of distraction,' he said. Scientists hope the rediscovery means that the Barbados threadsnake could become a champion for the protection of wildlife habitat. A lot of endemic species on the tiny island have gone extinct, including the Barbados racer, the Barbados skink and a particular species of cave shrimp. 'I hope they can get some interest in protecting it,' Hedges said. 'Barbados is kind of unique in the Caribbean for a bad reason: it has the least amount of original forest, outside of Haiti.'
Observer
5 days ago
- Science
- Observer
World's smallest snake makes big comeback
A snake so small it could be mistaken for a worm has been spotted in Barbados, nearly two decades after it was thought to have been 'lost' to science. The Barbados threadsnake (Tetracheilostoma carlae) was found hiding under a rock in central Barbados during an ecological survey in March by the Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification and conservation group Re:wild. 'Barbados threadsnakes are blind snakes, so they're very cryptic', said Connor Blades, a project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados who helped make the finding, in a statement. 'They're quite rare also, it seems. There have only been a handful of confirmed sightings since 1889, so there are not many people who have ever seen it, unfortunately'. Measuring just three to four inches long (eight to 10 centimetres) when fully grown — tiny enough to almost fit on a US quarter coin — the Barbados threadsnake is the world's smallest species of snake. It is distinguished by orange stripes along its back, eyes on the sides of its head and a small scale on its snout. 'When you are so accustomed to looking for things and you don't see them, you are shocked when you actually find it', said Justin Springer of Re:wild, who made the discovery alongside Blades. 'You can't believe it. That's how I felt. You don't want to get your hopes up too high'. The breakthrough came after more than a year of searching, as the pair upturned rocks trapped beneath a tree root. The tiny snake, which was found alongside an earthworm, was taken to the University of West Indies for careful examination under a microscope — it closely resembles the Brahminy blind snake, an invasive species, so the finding had to be validated — before it was returned to the forest. Only two per cent of the Caribbean island's primary forest remains intact, with the rest cleared for agriculture since the start of the colonial era 400 years ago. — AFP
Daily Tribune
5 days ago
- Science
- Daily Tribune
World's smallest snake makes big comeback
AFP | Washington, United States A snake so small it could be mistaken for a worm has been spotted in Barbados, nearly two decades after it was thought to have been "lost" to science. The Barbados threadsnake (Tetracheilostoma carlae) was found hiding under a rock in central Barbados during an ecological survey in March by the Barbados Ministry of the Environment and National Beautification and conservation group Re:wild. "Barbados threadsnakes are blind snakes, so they're very cryptic," said Connor Blades, a project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados who helped make the finding, in a statement. "They're quite rare also, it seems. There have only been a handful of confirmed sightings since 1889, so there are not many people who have ever seen it, unfortunately." The finding had to be validated before the snake was returned to the forest. Only two percent of the Caribbean island's primary forest remains intact, with the rest cleared for agriculture since the start of the colonial era 400 years ago. Measuring just three to four inches long (eight to 10 centimeters) when fully grown — tiny enough to almost fit on a US quarter coin — the Barbados threadsnake is the world's smallest species of snake. The Barbados threadsnake remains particularly vulnerable since it reproduces sexually and females lay a clutch of only one egg. Female Brahminy blind snakes, by contrast, can produce fertile eggs without mating. It is distinguished by orange stripes along its back, eyes on the sides of its head, and a small scale on its snout. "When you are so accustomed to looking for things and you don't see them, you are shocked when you actually find it," said Justin Springer of Re:wild, who made the discovery alongside Blades. "You can't believe it. That's how I felt. You don't want to get your hopes up too high." The breakthrough came after more than a year of searching, as the pair upturned rocks trapped beneath a tree root. The tiny snake, which was found alongside an earthworm, was taken to the University of West Indies for careful examination under a microscope — it closely resembles the Brahminy blind snake, an invasive species. "The threadsnake's rediscovery is also a call to all of us as Barbadians that forests in Barbados are very special and need protection," said Springer. "Not just for the threadsnake, but for other species as well. For plants, animals and our heritage."
Time of India
24-07-2025
- Science
- Time of India
What we know about the Barbados threadsnake, the world's smallest snake missing for 2 decades
Rare and cryptic Live Events Confirmed through lab analysis A sign of hope for conservation (You can now subscribe to our (You can now subscribe to our Economic Times WhatsApp channel A species of snake once thought lost to science has been rediscovered in the forests of Barbados. The Barbados threadsnake , believed to be the world's smallest snake, was spotted during an ecological survey in March 2025 by ecologist Connor Blades and his team. The official announcement and detailed confirmation were only made public on July 23, 2025, through a press release by Re: wild and the Barbados Ministry of EnvironmentThe elusive reptile, just about 10 centimetres long and 2 millimetres wide, hadn't been officially seen in nearly two decades.'It hasn't been seen in basically two decades, so it was quite an exciting find,' said Blades, a project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados. 'Probably one of the highlights of my career so far.'The snake was found beneath a small rock in a forested area, one of the last patches of relatively natural woodland left on the island. Its tiny size and worm-like appearance often lead to it being mistaken for an earthworm. It is blind, feeds on termite eggs, and lives underground, making it hard to far, scientists have only documented the species a handful of times since 1889. After being wrongly classified for years, US biologist S. Blair Hedges officially identified it as a distinct species in 2008.A microscope confirmed the snake's identity at the University of the West Indies. Key markings, including faint dorsal lines, helped distinguish it from other similar species, such as the Brahminy blind snake, an invasive species in Barbados.A month after the first sighting, another Barbados threadsnake was found in a different location, further boosting hopes for its rediscovery was part of a long-running effort under the Conserving Barbados' Endemic Reptiles project, in collaboration with Re:wild , an international conservation European colonisation, Barbados has lost 98 per cent of its natural forests. The threadsnake's survival in the remaining forest pockets highlights the urgent need to protect what's left.'It reminds us that we still have something important left that plays an important role in our ecosystem,' said Justin Springer of Re: has increased its overall tree cover over the past decades, but natural, moist forests, the threadsnake's preferred habitat, remain rare. Conservationists hope the rediscovery will guide future efforts to protect endangered species on the island.'If the threadsnake population isn't very dense, I'm worried about their ability to find mates, particularly if their habitat is under threat,' said Blades.
Boston Globe
23-07-2025
- Science
- Boston Globe
Scientists in Barbados rediscover world's smallest-known snake
'After a year of searching, you begin to get a little pessimistic,' said Blades, project officer with the Ministry of Environment in Barbados. The snake can fit comfortably on a coin, allowing it to elude scientists for almost 20 years. Too tiny to identify with the naked eye, Blades placed it in a small glass jar and added soil, substrate, and leaf litter. Several hours later, in front of a microscope at the University of the West Indies, Blades looked at the specimen. It wriggled in the petri dish, making it nearly impossible to identify. Advertisement 'It was a struggle,' Blades recalled, adding that he shot a video of the snake and finally identified it thanks to a still image. It had pale yellow dorsal lines running through its body, and its eyes were located on the side of its head. 'I tried to keep a level head,' Blades recalled, knowing that the Barbados threadsnake looks very much like a Brahminy blind snake, best known as the flower pot snake, which is a bit longer and has no dorsal lines. On Wednesday, the Re:wild conservation group, which is collaborating with the local environment ministry, announced the rediscovery of the Barbados threadsnake. 'Rediscovering one of our endemics on many levels is significant,' said Justin Springer, Caribbean program officer for Re:wild, who helped rediscover the snake along with Blades. 'It reminds us that we still have something important left that plays an important role in our ecosystem.' Advertisement The Barbados threadsnake has only been seen a handful of times since 1889. It was on a list of 4,800 plant, animal, and fungi species that Re:wild described as 'lost to science.' The snake is blind, burrows in the ground, eats termites and ants, and lays one single, slender egg. Fully grown, it measures up to four inches or 10 centimeters. 'They're very cryptic,' Blades said. 'You can do a survey for a number of hours, and even if they are there, you may actually not see them.' But on March 20 at around 10:30 a.m., Blades and Springer surrounded a jack-in-the-box tree in central Barbados and started looking under rocks while the rest of the team began measuring the tree, whose distribution is very limited in Barbados. 'That's why the story is so exciting,' Springer said. 'It all happened around the same time.' S. Blair Hedges, a professor at Temple University and director of its center for biology, was the first to identify the Barbados threadsnake. Previously, it was mistakenly lumped in with another species. In 2008, Hedges' discovery was published in a scientific journal, with the snake baptized Tetracheilostoma carlae, in honor of his wife. 'I spent days searching for them,' Hedges recalled. 'Based on my observations and the hundreds of rocks, objects that I turned over looking for this thing without success, I do think it is a rare species.' That was June 2006, and there were only three other such specimens known at the time: two at a London museum and a third at a museum collection in California that was wrongly identified as being from Antigua instead of Barbados, Hedges said. Advertisement Hedges said that he didn't realize he had collected a new species until he did a genetic analysis. 'The aha moment was in the laboratory,' he said, noting that the discovery established the Barbados threadsnake as the world's smallest-known snake. Hedges then became inundated for years with letters, photographs, and emails from people thinking they had found more Barbados threadsnakes. Some of the pictures were of earthworms, he recalled. 'It was literally years of distraction,' he said. Scientists hope the rediscovery means that the Barbados threadsnake could become a champion for the protection of wildlife habitat. A lot of endemic species on the tiny island have gone extinct, including the Barbados racer, the Barbados skink, and a particular species of cave shrimp. 'I hope they can get some interest in protecting it,' Hedges said. 'Barbados is kind of unique in the Caribbean for a bad reason: it has the least amount of original forest, outside of Haiti.'
