Experts

Smallest Snail of the World Found in Borneo

By Kanika Gupta | Update Date: Nov 09, 2015 10:34 AM EST

The record of the world's smallest snail is held by a mollusk found in Borneo, according to a new study. The average height of this snail is recorded at 0.027 inches or 0.7 millimeters with white and translucent shell, breaking the previously held record by 1/10th of a millimeter. The second smallest snail, Augustopila Dominikae has been measured at an average hell height of 0.033 inches said researchers, as reported by Live Science.

The newly discovered snail has been named as Acmella Nana by the Malaysian and Dutch researchers. The name, nana, has been derived from the Latin Nanus meaning dwarf. This new specie of the snail is so small that the researchers were unable to locate it in the wilderness without using a microscope. However, since the researchers already knew where to find these tiny mollusks, they could find these snails in Borneo. The shells of these snails are made of calcium carbonate and this the reason they live on the limestone hills in Borneo, said Menno Schilthuizen, Professor of Evolution at Netherland's Leiden University. Schilthuizen told Live Science, "When we go to a limestone hill, we just bring some strong plastic bags, and we collect a lot of soil and litter and dirt from underneath the limestone cliffs". It is still not clear what the snail feeds on because the researchers have never seen these tiny mollusks alive in the wild for too long, reports CBS News.

The researchers found it hard to find them in Borneo initially because of their hidden existence. This includes the seven new snail species that were found on Mount Kinabalu. It is this discovery of new species that helped the scientists understand the rampant creatures like Acmella Nana, according to tech times.

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