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Barbadians slam discovery, naming of tiny snake

Leptotyphlops carlae lying on a U.S. quarter

SAN JUAN: A small snake has sparked a big debate in Barbados. Residents of the wealthy Caribbean nation have been heating up blogs and clogging radio airwaves to vent their anger at an American scientist, who this week announced his “discovery” of the world’s smallest snake and named it Leptotyphlops carlae, after his wife Carla. “If he needs to blow his own trumpet... well, fine,” said 43-year-old Barbadian Charles Atkins. “But my mother, who was a simple housewife, she showed me the snake when I was a child.”

One writer on the Barbados Free Press blog took a an even tougher tone, questioning how someone could “discover” a snake long known to locals, who called it the thread snake. “How dare this man come in here and name a snake after his wife?” said the writer, identified as Margaret Knight.

The man she refers to is Penn State University evolutionary biologist S. Blair Hedges, whose research teams also have discovered the world’s tiniest lizard in the Dominican Republic and the smallest frog in Cuba. He recently became the first to describe the snake — which is so small it can curl up on a U.S. quarter — when he published his observations and genetic test results in the journal Zootaxa. Full-grown adults typically are less than 10 cm.

Mr. Hedges said he understands Barbadians’ angry reactions, but under established scientific practice, the first person to do a full description of a species is said to have discovered it and gives it a scientific name. He said most newly “discovered” species are already well known to locals, and the term refers to the work done in a laboratory to establish a genetic profile. In the study, he reported that two specimens he analysed were found in 1889 and 1963. “There are no false claims here, believe me,” he said.

Karl Watson, a historian and ornithologist, said it is common for people to get excited over very tiny or very large animals, especially if found in their country. — AP

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