14 DAY TRIAL // All around the world, people are used to seeing all sorts of animals, of various shapes and sizes. New species appear or go extinct everyday, yet there are those creatures that seem so peculiar to us because they are very very tiny. And from an evolutionary point of view, they make no sense, seeing how size is usually an important factor in adaptation. So here is a list of the smallest creatures Mother Nature "gave birth" to over the course of history, as presented by Oddee.
The smallest dog in the world is a yappy short-coat Chihuahua named Ducky, which currently lives in Charlton, Massachusetts, in the US. It's only 4.9 inches (12.5 centimeters) tall and weighs in at about 1.4 pounds. As far as height is concerned, this animal holds the Guinness world record for the smallest dog, having beaten Danka Kordak, a Chihuahua from Slovakia that measures 5.4 inches in height.
Mr Peebles of Illinois is the current record holder as the smallest cat in the world. It's 19.2 inches (49 cm) long, and has a height of 6.1 inches (15.5 cm). The animal can easily fit into a small glass, even though it has a weight of about three pounds. This record was set in 2004, when it was two years old.
Thumbelina currently holds the world record for the smallest horse alive. It comes from a special breeding program, which specializes in creating miniature horses, ran by Paul and Kay Goessling. The owners say that the 60 pound (27 kilogram)-heavy and the 17 inch (44 centimeter)-tall horse is actually a dwarf version of a miniature horse, which is saying a lot.
The smallest hamster ever on record has a height of only 0.9 inches (2.5 centimeters), and is roughly the size of a coin. PeeWee weighs less than an ounce, and its owners say that the animal stopped growing when it was just three weeks old. The golden hamster was easily surpassed in size by its brothers and sisters, which grew to measure 4 to 5 inches.
Blair Hedges was the discoverer of the world's smallest snake species, which lives in the Caribbean. The snake, named Leptotyphlops carlae, is currently the world record holder as far as its size goes, measuring only 4 inches (10 centimeters) in length. It closely resembles a noodle, as far as its shapes is concerned, and can easily rest on a US quarter.
The island of Madagascar hosts the smallest species of chameleons to have ever existed. The Brookesia Minima lives happily on the land of the rain forest, even though one of them is only half an inch (1.2 centimeters) long. The animals can easily rest on top of a person's thumb, from which they use their eyes to scout nearby regions.
