Like any other kid growing up, I’ve had a fascination with animals. I wanted to learn all about them. I would read my elementary almanac books about them over and over again. And my fascination hasn’t died.
While many of us know that the biggest animal on earth is the blue whale, scientists have officially announced they have found the smallest vertebrate animal ever — a frog that is only 7 millimeters long.
The Brazilian flea toad
A new study in Brazil has provided more evidence about some of the smallest frogs in the world known as Brachycephalus pulex (aka the Brazilian flea toad) by studying 46 of these frogs and comparing them to other known small frogs.
Scientists found that male Brazilian flea toads had an average length of 7 millimeters, while females measured up to 8 millimeters, per BBC. This is smaller than one of the previous world record holders, the Eleutherodactylus iberia (aka the Monte Iberia dwarf frog) that grew up to 10 millimeters.
BBC also notes how the Brazilian flea toad lacks a common feature among frogs — the ability to jump; research from 2022 showed that these frogs actually lose their balance when they jump because of how small they are.
Scientists believe there are small animals that have yet to be discovered, but here are four other animals that are considered to be some of the smallest vertebrate animals on earth.
The nano-chameleon
According to The Guardian, the Brookesia nana (also known as the nano-chameleon) is a reptile from Madagascar that was found in 2012. Male nano-chameleons grow up to 20 millimeters, while females can grow up to 30 millimeters.
Roughly the size of a sunflower seed, the nano-chameleon probably eats mites and springtails. According to National Geographic, scientists were only able to find two nano-chameleons back in 2012, a male and a female. Scientists believe that it won’t be long until the species is critically endangered.
The bumblebee bat
The Craseonycteris thonglongyai has multiple names, including the hog-nosed bat and the bumblebee bat, per The Guardian and Business Insider.
It can have a body length of 29 millimeters (that’s about 3 centimeters) and a wingspan of 145 millimeters, per The Guardian. The bumblebee bat live in caves in Thailand and Myanmar and can weigh as much as a paperclip, according to Discover Magazine.
The bumblebee bat currently holds the Guinness World Record as the smallest bat in the world.
The bee hummingbird
The bee hummingbird is native to the forests of Cuba and has scientists concerned about its survival, according to The Guardian. The bee hummingbird weighs less than a coin, has an average length of 5 to 6 centimeters and can have a wing beat of up to 200 flaps a second, per Business Insider.
According to the National Audubon Society, the bee hummingbird is considered the world’s smallest bird, even among hummingbirds. Their eggs are the size of a coffee bean and their nests are merely an inch long. Male bee hummingbirds’s “entire head and throat shine in fiery pinkish-red” and have “blazing red feathers point like spikes down the sides of the breast,” per National Audubon Society.
The Etruscan shrew
The Etruscan shrew is considered one of the smallest animals because of its weight, not its not length. The Etruscan shrew can weigh as little as 1.2 grams and can be found across Eurasia and Africa, according to The Guardian.
Etruscan shrews are known to eat up to 25 times per day, per Business Insider, and are known to eat a variety of insects according to Animal Diversity Web.