Scientists discovered a new world record holder for the smallest species of snail after combing through the soil on the island of Borneo in the South Pacific.
It broke a record that had only been set about a month ago in China, coming in at about a tenth of a millimeter smaller. The snail, Acmella nana — nana referencing the Latin word “nanus” for dwarf” — comes in at just 0.027 inches, or 0.07 millimeters, according to a Live Science report.
This knocks the Chinese snail, Angustopila dominikae, off its pedestal. It took a microscope to see Acmella nana.
Scientists were poking around on the jungle island of Borneo, which is famous for its species diversity — scientists think there are about 500 species of snail alone there. The island includes the nation of Brunei and a portion of the nations of Indonesia and Malaysia.
So how did scientists hunt down a microscopic snail? They knew that the snail’s shell would be made of calcium carbonate, which is a prime component of limestone, and therefore they knew to head to the island’s limestone hills to seek out new species. They collected some soil from underneath the cliffs and sifted through it with a special process. Just a few kilograms of soil would sometimes contain tens of thousands of shells.
The Acmella nana hasn’t been observed eating, but scientists surmise it probably subsists off of bacteria and fungi, as a similar species, Acmella polita, has been observed consuming those things.