Two Brand New Animals, Each the Size of a Fingernail

Scientists just discovered two animals nobody had ever named. Tag a friend who thinks every species on Earth has already been found. In the mountains of Montenegro, researchers searching limestone cliffs found two tiny snails that turned out to be completely new to science.

Each snail measures about the width of a fingernail and carries a small cone-shaped shell. Instead of a simple flap, each one has a round disk on its tail that works like a door, sealing the shell shut the moment the snail pulls inside. One of the two species lives only in a narrow canyon that a planned dam could flood before scientists finish studying what else lives there.

The team named the snails after the places where they were found, one after the canyon and one after a high plateau nearby. Researchers say the discovery shows that even in well-mapped parts of Europe, whole species can still be waiting, unnamed, on a single cliff.