📸 PhotoPhoto: Velatrix · CC0 · Wikimedia Commons Source
Barbados Threadsnake
Tetracheilostoma carlae (Barbados Threadsnake · Barbados Threadsnake)
💡 Everyday Comparisons for Size, Mass & Speed
- 💡 A maximum length of 10.4 cm is shorter than a ballpoint pen (about 14 cm) (Comparison).
- 💡 Smithsonian Magazine notes that when coiled up, it is about the size of a US 25-cent coin (quarter) (Comparison).
- 💡 News broke in month 7 of 2025 that a survey team from the Barbados Ministry of Environment and the conservation group Re:wild had rediscovered it under a rock in month 3 of the same year.
Reference standards: coach bus ~12 m, mid-size car ~4.9 m, compact car ~1 t, basketball hoop 3.05 m, credit card 8.56 cm.
📖 1. Overview
The Barbados Threadsnake is the smallest known snake, living only on the island of Barbados in the Caribbean.
🦴 2. Anatomy & Morphology
Adults reach at most 104 mm in length and are about as thick as a strand of spaghetti. It lays a single egg at a time.
🔍 3. Ecology & Behavior
It eats termites and termite eggs. With over 98% of the island's forest gone, its habitat has shrunk, and on day 20 of month 3 in 2025 it was rediscovered under a rock.
🇰🇷 4. Connection to Korea
No direct record connecting this species to Korea has been found.
📚 Sources & References
- • IUCN Red List CR (2016) — https://www.iucnredlist.org/species/203637/115351519
- • IUCN Red List category CR — latest assessment at iucnredlist.org
- • catalogueoflife.org — 55LL4
- • iucnredlist.org — 115351519
- • wikidata.org — Q310908
- • commons.wikimedia.org — File:Tetracheilostoma carlae (Leptotyphlops carlae).JPG
- • reptile-database.reptarium.cz — species
- • smithsonianmag.com — scientists-feared-the-worlds-smallest-snake-had-gone-extinct
Recorded dimensions are widely cited representative estimates from public literature and may vary by study or specimen.