Alive and well in the Caribbean

By Dan Estabrook - August 4, 2008 (TNN) What could live on a quarter, enjoys life only in Barbados, and has children that are half its size when born? Leptotyphlops carlae.  Still stumped? "Thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to rest comfortably on a U.S. quarter," is how Penn State describes the new snake species its biologists discovered on Barbados.  Evolutionary biologist Blair Hedges, and his team of colleagues, announced their findings this past weekend. The new snake, which is a type of threadsnake, inhabits a small forest on the eastern side of the Caribbean island.  Like other rare species on islands in the Caribbean, the snake has nowhere to go as its habitat is destroyed.  The team believes that it is the smallest species of snakes discovered, and that its specialized size came as a result of it filling ecological niches left vacant by absence of other species (e.g. centipedes), a common occurance in island habitats. Amazingly, small snakes usually lay only one egg and hatchlings are already 2 inches long when born.  Larger and more well-known snakes lay up to 100 eggs at a time.  Evolution has granted the smallest snakes a great favor -- larger offspring to have a better chance at surviving into adulthood.  These offspring and their relatives eat ant and termite larvae to subsist. Does this small snake still alleviate my overall fear of snakes?  Certainly not.  If anything, having this little guy crawl into my shoe would definitely give me the heebie jeebies, not to mention a feeling of massive guilt if I stepped on one and ended its already-challenged life. At least knowing about Leptotyphlops carlae will help biologists protect it.  Hedges commented that "It is difficult to protect a species if you don't know it exits." Read more here and here.