As of: March 7, 2024, 3:20 p.m
By: Sophie Kluß
Comments
Press
Split
There are numerous small animals on the planet - but these dimensions surprise even experts.
Spoiler alert: The smallest of all animals is less than a millimeter tall.
1 / 10This picture is not about the fish, but about the smallest animal in the world, a cnidarian with the complicated name Myxobolus shekel.
It is a fish parasite and is just 0.0085 millimeters long.
Myxobolus shekel is therefore invisible to the eye.
And even under some microscopes the animal is not visible.
The tiny parasite was only discovered in 2011. (Symbolic image) © blickwinkel/Imago
2 / 10This frog (Paedophryne amauensis) is the smallest amphibian and vertebrate in the world and one of the smallest animals in existence.
It is only seven millimeters tall, forgive me, small - for comparison: a German one cent coin measures 16.25 millimeters.
The mini frog is found exclusively in Papua New Guinea and was discovered in 2009.
Incidentally, narrow-mouthed frogs hatch from the egg fully developed and do not go through the tadpole stage.
© Arizona State University/International Institute for the Study of Species/Christopher C. Austin |
picture alliance / dpa
3 / 10Here the explorer himself, the Swiss biologist Maurice Kottelat, holds the smallest fish in the world in his hand.
Kottelat found him in Indonesia in 2004.
The little fish has the scientific name Paedocypris progenetica and has a transparent body.
With a length of up to ten millimeters, it is only slightly larger than the miniature frog.
Until their discovery, the tiny fish were considered the smallest vertebrates.
© picture-alliance/dpa/dpaweb |
epa Keystone Darrin Vanselow
4 / 10The smallest reptile in the world sits on this finger.
It is a species of chameleon called Brookesia nana.
The tiny creatures are native to Madagascar and are only around 1.35 centimeters tall (females are slightly larger).
The largest chameleon in the world is more than forty times larger than Brookesia nana.
© picture alliance/dpa/SNSB-ZSM |
Frank Glaw
5 / 10The Denise dwarf seahorse is considered the smallest known seahorse in the world and only grows up to 2.4 centimeters, but usually stays smaller.
It lives perfectly camouflaged between coral reefs at a depth of around 90 meters in the Western Pacific.
© imagebroker/Imago
6 / 10Here you can see the smallest snake on earth.
Leptotyphlops carlae grows to a maximum length of ten centimeters and lives on the Caribbean island of Barbados.
The thread snake is as thin as a spaghetti noodle.
© picture-alliance/dpa |
DB Blair Hedges
7 / 10This hummingbird, the so-called bee elf, is the smallest bird on earth and lives in Cuba.
According to the WWF, the tiny flying artist weighs just two grams at a height of five centimeters. That's about the weight of a paper clip.
Incidentally, the bee elf also lays the smallest eggs in the world: They are about the size of a pea and weigh just 0.2 grams. © Nature Picture Library/Imago
8 / 10The Etruscan shrew is also one of the smallest animals on our planet and is one of the world's two smallest mammal species.
The tiny mouse at least cracks the centimeter mark: it grows up to 4.8 centimeters tall and weighs around three grams. That corresponds to the weight of a sugar cube.
The Mediterranean region is also part of the distribution area of the Etruscan shrew. It shares the title of the smallest mammal in the world with the rare hog-nosed bat (also known as the bumblebee bat), which weighs a maximum of two grams and is around 3.3 centimeters tall.
In contrast, its wingspan appears huge: the mini bat spreads its wings 13 to 15 centimeters.
© blickwinkel/Imago
9 / 10The Madame Berthe's mouse lemur, the smallest primate in the world, weighs just 30 grams.
The monkeys can only be found in Madagascar.
In terms of body size, the mouse lemur is not even a tiny thing: the body length is a maximum of 9.5 centimeters and the tail is up to 14 centimeters long.
The pure body length corresponds approximately to a postcard or a human hand.
© picture alliance / dpa |
WWF/Harald Schütz
10 / 10The world's smallest insects are too tiny to be seen with the naked eye.
The smallest specimen, Dicopomorpha echmepterygis, belongs to the chalcid wasps.
Another species of chalcid wasp (Torymus spec.) can be seen in the photo.
Adult males are around 0.24 millimeters long.
They have neither eyes nor mouth nor wings.
Another mini insect and one of the smallest beetles on the planet is the Scydosella beetle, which is only around 0.3 millimeters long.
(Symbolic image) © blickwinkel/Imago
The smallest of the small animals are barely visible even under a microscope.
The larger specimens at least fit in one hand and are almost giants in contrast to the tiny ones.
The new WhatsApp channel from Landtiere.de is here!
Animal tips and touching news can be found on our WhatsApp channel: Click here to go directly to
Tierverliebt.
According to the
Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, Nuclear Safety and Consumer Protection
, there could currently be between 10 and 100 million different animal species in the world and in the oceans, with experts assuming around 15 million species.
So far, however, only “around 1.8 million of them are known and scientifically described”.