Biologist Blair Hedges of Penn State university and his team have found the world's smallest snake, which might also be the smallest possible snake. Hedges was also involved in discovering the world's smallest lizard and smallest frog. Adults of the new threadsnake are less than four inches long, and their particular features and DNA qualify them for a new species.

This is why Blair Hedges named the snake Leptotyphlops carlae in honor of his wife, Carla Ann Hass, who is a herpetologist  and was part of the team. The discovery, which took place in a remnant of forest on the eastern side of Barbados in June 2006, is detailed in the formal description published online in Zootaxa. Leptotyphlops carlae is so small it can curl on a dollar quarter, and was found on the Caribbean island of Barbados. The Caribbean is also home to the world's smallest lizard and smallest frog, and Hedges claims that it is a coincidence that teams he led discovered all three. The threadsnake lives on insect larvae.

At the other end of the snake spectrum, length-wise, we have the reticulated python which is about 30 feet long. Biologist Blair Hedges says the Leptotyphlops carlae snake is probably the smallest possible snake, because if it would have been even smaller, it would be impossible for it to produce offspring large enough to forage independently and consume insect prey.

A strange feature is that the world's smallest snake only produces a single elongated egg. It appears, thus, that the snake's young are one-half the length of the adult, which is much like humans giving birth to babies 1/8 of their weight, or around 20 pounds.