They found seven empty light grey shells measuring less than a millimetre, with the smallest (Angustopila dominikae) being just 0.86mm in height.
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Scientists have uncovered the snails while examining soil samples after collecting them from the base of a few limestone rocks in Guangxi Provine is southern China.
Two of the authors have previously described other species of tiny land snails from China and Korea in the same journal.
An additional five new species are also described, all around 1 or 2 millimeters at the largest point in their shells.
The experts said it is unlikely land snails will be smaller than those discovered in China because the organs and cells would not be able to function in such minute proportions.
These tiny snails not only look attractive, but also gains a lot of interest from scientists to know more about their adaptation to the environment, said Páll-Gergely.
“We hope that these results provide the taxonomic groundwork for future studies concerning the evolution of dwarfism in invertebrates”, the researchers concluded.
A teeny tiny snail that can fit into the eye of a needle 10 times over is possibly the world’s smallest ever discovered. Its scientific name fabella comes from the Latin word for “little bean”, which refers to the shell’s bean-shaped opening.
As small as this snail species is, it doesn’t hold the record for smallest snail.
Due to the size of the snails and the fact that they are rarely found alive, snail species of this size are very hard to discover – the bodies often degrade a long period before the shells do.
The snail is called Angustopila dominikae, and at.86 mm in shell heights it’s possible the world’s smallest land snail species.
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Dr Barna Pall-Gergely, of Shinshu University, Japan, said: “Investigating tiny shelled land snails is important for assessing biodiversity and natural history as well as for establishing the foundation for studying the evolution of dwarfism in invertebrate animals”. The smallest snail in the world is ammonicera minortalis which is a sea snail that is only 0.32mm.
