Flying Fish now Smallest Snake

[xtech]

First dem say d fish is dem own now



Barbadians slam snake 'discovery' as old news

A small snake has sparked a big debate in Barbados.
The snake is so small it can curl up on a U.S. quarter.

The snake is so small it can curl up on a U.S. quarter.

Residents of the wealthy Caribbean nation have been heating up blogs and clogging radio airwaves to vent their anger at a U.S. scientist, who earlier 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 to the Barbados Free Press blog took 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 who identified themselves 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.

Hedges 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 4 inches long.
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Hedges told The Associated Press on Friday that 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 analyzed were found in 1889 and 1963.

"There are no false claims here, believe me," Hedges said.

Damon Corrie, president of the Caribbean Herpetological Society, acknowledged that Hedges is the first to scientifically examine and describe the snake, but the so-called discovery makes locals seem ignorant.

"It gives the impression that people here ... depend on people from abroad to come and show us things in our own backyard," Corrie said.

Karl Watson, a historian and ornithologist at the University of the West Indies in Barbados, said it's common for people to get excited over very tiny or very large animals.

"Probably people have overreacted. ... It's nationalism going a bit awry," Watson said.

Hedges agreed: "I think they're carrying it a bit too far."

"Snakes are really apolitical," he said.

[noobie]

That's because Caribbean people too damned backward and third world.

Our Governments are incompetent and we make no effort to hold onto our heritage and our natural wealth.Foreigners have always plundered our resources, and they will continue to do so because of our lack of leadership and laissez faire mentality.

we are so backward as a people and a region that it's sad. very, very sad.

Clearly there were no West Indian scientists capable of or interested in cataloguing the wildlife of the Caribbean or Bajans in Barbados capable of doing the same. We are just showing our ignorance of process and scientific study by complaining.

[chasemeifyoucan]

That's because Caribbean people too damned backward and third world.

Our Governments are incompetent and we make no effort to hold onto our heritage and our natural wealth.Foreigners have always plundered our resources, and they will continue to do so because of our lack of leadership and laissez faire mentality.

we are so backward as a people and a region that it's sad. very, very sad.

Clearly there were no West Indian scientists capable of or interested in cataloguing the wildlife of the Caribbean or Bajans in Barbados capable of doing the same. We are just showing our ignorance of process and scientific study by complaining.

We??

[noobie]

You think Trinidad any better?

You think Trinidadians go into our own forests to catalogue and research anything?

Nooo...It is the Dutch, and the Germans, and the British that coming into OUR forests and researching our frogs and wildlife and patenting products in Europe!

Blasted BACKWARD arsed region. Continues to get raped and our broken and incompetent leaders are the tip of the spear!

[chasemeifyoucan]

You think Trinidad any better?

You think Trinidadians go into our own forests to catalogue and research anything?

Nooo...It is the Dutch, and the Germans, and the British that coming into OUR forests and researching our frogs and wildlife and patenting products in Europe!

Blasted BACKWARD arsed region. Continues to get raped and our broken and incompetent leaders are the tip of the spear!

Easy don dadda

[noobie]

It's annoying.
*mutter*
*grumble*

[Razkal]

Yeah but saddis, WE have the thread snake HERE!
There's one in a lab in UWI

[xtech]

Yeah but saddis, WE have the thread snake HERE!
There's one in a lab in UWI

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now Thats Funny

we UWI professors could ah claim d snake was found in Trini an hit dem bajans hard

[douglaking]

I've seen those before in Siparia.....thought it was a prudy worm..

[Maserati]

Yeah but saddis, WE have the thread snake HERE!
There's one in a lab in UWI

^^^^^^^^^^^^
Now Thats Funny

we UWI professors could ah claim d snake was found in Trini an hit dem bajans hard

for real
but if the UWI researchers give it a name etc already then the yank has no claim.

[MG Man]

You think Trinidad any better?

You think Trinidadians go into our own forests to catalogue and research anything?

Nooo...It is the Dutch, and the Germans, and the British that coming into OUR forests and researching our frogs and wildlife and patenting products in Europe!

Blasted BACKWARD arsed region. Continues to get raped and our broken and incompetent leaders are the tip of the spear!

we have species in the Aripo Savannah that unique to T&T, and what do we do? Enocurage squatting and turn a blind eye to the effects of illegal quarrying in this supposed nature reserve

It will be a sad day when Prof Julian Kenny passes on......

[Maserati]

^not much care towards the environment in this place.

[Razkal]

^wukk like rain for me yes! if i ever can't get a job is time to switch fields

[gt4tified]

Boo-Hoo....Bajans just have nutting better to do. You'd think with all dat flying fish (as they claim) they'd be busy enough fishing....

[- Rovin's car audio -]

it effing goooooood 4 dem !

- they want to come & tief we fish so now dey go feel how nice it is when somebody from outside come & take something from dem now .... ....

[isgarali]

i caught one of these in my house aready, i thought it was an earthworm. it smell REALL stink though! UGH!! so i guess i discover it!

[Conrad]

it effing goooooood 4 dem !

- they want to come & tief we fish so now dey go feel how nice it is when somebody from outside come & take something from dem now .... ....