World’s tiniest snail found in Sabah

Dwarf snail: The world’s tiniest snail, Acmella nana, is hardly discernible on a page of printed text. Photo: Menno Schilthuizen

The world record for the smallest land snail has been broken once again. The minute snail with an average shell diameter of 0.7mm was found in Sabah along with another 47 new species of greatly varying size, by a team of Dutch and Malaysian biologists.

The new tiny snail has been named Acmella nana (nanus is “dwarf” in Latin). The previous title holder, the Chinese Angustopila dominikae which measures just 0.8mm, was just announced a month ago.