May 20, 2011

World’s Smallest Cat: 15.5 cm (6.1-inch) high and 49 cm (19.2-inch) long

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10 of the World's Smallest Animals

Published on 10/30/2008 under Weird Science - 617,217 views
TAGS: Smallest Dog, Smallest Cat, Smallest Horse, Small Animals, Smallest Fish, Smallest Lizard

World’s Smallest Dog: 12.4 cm (4.9-inch) tall

At 1.4 pounds and 4.9 inches tall, Ducky, a yappy short-coat Chihuahua from Charlton (Massachusetts, USA), holds the Guinness World Record for the world's smallest living dog (by height). Ducky succeeds Danka Kordak of Slovakia, a Chihuahua who measured 5.4 inches tall. The smallest dog ever, according to Guinness, was a dwarf Yorkshire terrier who stood 2.8 inches tall.

World's Smallest Snake: 10.1 cm (4-inch) long

Leptotyphlops carlae is the world's smallest species of snake, with adults averaging just under four inches in length. Found on the Caribbean island of Barbados, the species --which is as thin as a spaghetti noodle and small enough to rest comfortably on a U.S. quarter-- was discovered by Blair Hedges.

World’s Smallest Fish: 7.9 mm (0.3-inch) long

On January 2006, the world's smallest fish was discovered on the Indonesian island of Sumatra: a member of the carp family of fish, the Paedocypris progenetica. It is the world's smallest vertebrate or backboned animal; only 7.9 mm (0.3 inches) long.

The title, however, is contested by 6.2 mm (0.2 in) long male anglerfish Photocorynus spiniceps (not technically a fish but a sexual parasite) and the 7 mm (0.27 in) long male stout infantfish Schindleria brevipinguis.

World’s Smallest Horse: 43.18 cm (17-inch) tall

The little horse was born to Paul and Kay Goessling, who specialize in breeding miniature horses, but even for the breed Thumbelina is particularly small: she is thought to be a dwarf-version of the breed. At just 60 lb and 17-inch tall, the five-year-old Thumbelina is the world’s smallest horse.