An evolutionary biologist at Penn State University has discovered a species of snake so small that it can fit comfortably on a quarter. The average adult of the species, a type of threadsnake named Leptotyphlops carlae, is less than four inches long. The discovery will be published in the August 4 issue of the journal Zootaxa.
I came to the US from South Vietnam after the VietCong's took over Saigon in 1975. I remembered seeing this tiny snake so many times in my country when I was a small kid. At first, I thought they were some earthworms because I found them under the trees in my grandpa's garden. But then my Mom told me they were snakes because, as she pointed out to me, their forked tongues had momentarily come in and out of their mouths looking for bad kids :) .
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