October 7, 2025, 1:30 pm | Read time: 2 minutes
Do you know which animal was considered lost for 20 years? Then you would have likely aced this 32,000-euro question from the popular “RTL” quiz show.
Contestant Anna-Lea Fröhlich faced a tricky animal question on the “Who Wants to Be a Millionaire” episode from October 6, 2025. The question sought an animal species that was rediscovered after nearly two decades and measures just ten centimeters. The question was:
“Twenty years after its last sighting, it was recently rediscovered: the smallest species among the … with a size of only about 10 cm?”
A: Snakes
B: Crocodiles
C: Whales
D: Bears
The biological question caused the contestant significant head-scratching. She first used the 50:50 lifeline, leaving options A: Snakes and D: Bears. The next lifeline, the phone-a-friend, had a gut feeling it was a bear. But attentive PETBOOK readers would already be shouting. The answer was, of course, the smallest known snake species, which we reported on here: Smallest Snake in the World Rediscovered on Barbados After 20 Years.
Tetracheilostoma carlae: The Return of a Natural Wonder
Indeed, the smallest snake in the world was considered lost for two decades and is now officially back: The thread snake was rediscovered on the Caribbean island of Barbados. This sensation was achieved as part of ecological monitoring and sparked excitement not only among experts.
Tetracheilostoma carlae is a true mystery of nature. Since its first documented sighting in 1889, only a few confirmed records have been made—the last nearly 20 years ago. Due to its tiny size and hidden lifestyle, it was considered “lost to science.” On the global list of over 4,800 species of plants, animals, and fungi considered lost, it ranked among the most prominent candidates.
Its disappearance is not surprising: 98 percent of the original forests on Barbados have vanished since colonization over 500 years ago. The intensive land use now practiced is the reason. This habitat is essential for the tiny snake’s survival.