Animals

The March of the Red Crab
A Moth Find a New Home
Suicidal Birds
A leopard and A cheetah
The Spectacular Hornbill
The Antelope with an extraordinary nose
Masquerading Males
Tiny But Powerful
Electric Fishes
Paternal Care
Hairless Cat
Passionate Parrot
Calling Out To Mother
Hot Wheels
Discs On Their Wings
Two-humped Camels
Frozen Frog
Silken Chambers
Earth Pig
Swordsman of the Sea
The Ostrich Trick
Electrifying Meal
Bizarre Turtle
Grey Whales
The Flying Lemur
The Winged Fishing Creature
Llamas
A Different Sort of a Parrot
The Tailless Cat
The Ancestor Of The Rhino
Acquisitive Wood Rats
The Butterflyfish
The Amazing Jumper
The Largest Deer
The Devil’s Coach-Horse
The Porcupine With A Prehensile Tail
The Irritating Fencing
The Acrobatic Otter
The Busy Termite Colony
Superb Mimics
The Canary
Snow Monkey
Jumping Spiders
Glass Lizard
Beetle Rhino
The World’s Smallest Bear
Hygienic Ants
Flat as a Pancake
The Carpet Shark
The Centipede Walk

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The Littlest Lizard

It measures just 16 mm from nose to tail, approximately the diameter of a 50 paise coin! The Jaragua lizard is the world's smallest. In fact, it's the smallest vertebrate that can reproduce on dry land, from among the 23,000 species of reptiles, birds and mammals found on Earth.
The lizard, which was discovered in December 2001, lives on Isla Beata, a small, forest-covered island in the Caribbean, off the Dominican Republic. Evolutionary biologists from the U.S.A. and Puerto Rico found the lizard in three sites, including one on the southernmost tip of mainland Dominica. It is believed to live only in these sites.
The researchers think that other tiny lizards probably live in these islands. One of a similar size is known from the British Virgin Islands.

The Jaragua feeds on tiny
insects, and must be on guard against being eaten by centipedes and scorpions.
The Caribbean is also home to the world's smallest bird, frog and snake.

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Last updated on :9/22/2003

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User's Comments

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Roger Brown: I have caught and discarded 4 small snakes from my house in Lapu Lapu city, Cebu, Philippines. They are less than 3 inches long, 1/16 inch wide, shiney black hard boddyed little things. I can barly make out eyes, and mouth, smallest thing I ever saw other than worm or bug. What is a place I can find out about them? Thanks, Roger

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