To those that feel that everything there is to discover in the world has been discovered, think again. The tiniest snail ever has just been found in China. The remarkable discovery shows that there is still so much to see of this natural world and so much to explore. Read on to find out more about this new discovery.
Angustopila dominikae is the smallest snail ever discovered with its shell measuring in at 0.86mm. The tiny snail was discovered in a cave in China and is no larger than a crumb. In fact, you could fit about 10 of them inside the eye of a needle. These tiny snails are part of a group called microgastropods. This discovery now confirms that microgastropods are amongst the most diverse land snails in the world in terms of the number of varieties.
The discovery was made by Barna Páll-Gergely of Shinshu University in Japan, he named his discovery dominikae after his wife Dominika. The snail is a dark grey color, round and clearly tiny, it spends its life clinging to limestone cliffs. Based on the description we are not sure if the scientist’s wife will be particularly impressed that he named the snail after him.
The findings highlight the need to explore more of China’s natural world particularly the extensive cave systems which can reveal a lot more about the subterranean biodiversity of the region. The tiny snail is a further example of the miracles of nature. For such a tiny snail to exist that is as small as the tip of your eyelash shows just how complex the world we live in is. It is clear that the more our technology advances the more we will discover in this incredible world of ours. While planets and space contain untold discoveries there are many here to keep us busy for now.