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Mesalina brevirostris BLANFORD, 1874

IUCN Red List - Mesalina brevirostris - Least Concern, LC
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Higher TaxaLacertidae, Eremiadinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies
 
Common NamesE: Blanford's Short-Nosed Desert Lizard 
SynonymMesalina brevirostris BLANFORD 1874: 32
Eremias brevirostris — BOULENGER 1887
Eremias brevirostris — BOULENGER 1920: 353
Eremias brevirostris — SMITH 1935: 390
Eremias brevirostris — HAAS 1957: 73
Eremias brevirostris brevirostris — HAAS & WERNER 1969
Eremias brevirostris — EISSA & ASSY 1975
Mesalina brevirostris — SZCZERBAK 1989
Eremias brevirostris — DAS 1996: 49
Mesalina brevirostris brevirostris — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008
Mesalina brevirostris — BAHA EL DIN 2013
Mesalina brevirostris — SMID et al. 2017 
DistributionSE Saudi Arabia, Qatar, SW Iran, United Arab Emirates, Kuwait

Type locality: restriced to Tumb Island, Persian Gulf, by SMID et al. 2017 (= probably Greater Tunb (Iran, but also claimed by the UAE)  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesLectotype. BMNH 1946.8.6.25. Designated by Šmíd et al. 2017.
Former Syntypes: BMNH 80.11.10.40/1946.8.6.34 and ZSI 3474 (fide Das et al, 1998) 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Three nasals, lower in contact with rostral and first supralabial; ventral plates in 12 (rarely 10) straight longitudinal series; occipital absent or minute, not in contact with interparietal; collar curved or angular, free; head not strongly depressed, head width is 92% of head length; 51 – 53 scales across middle of back; 19 – 28 lamellae under fourth toe; moderately large lizard; snout-vent length 56 mm, tail 102 mm. Gray or grayish brown above, usually with numerous large whitish ocelli edged with black, pattern highly variable; sometimes small dark brown or rusty spots on back and larger ones on sides; tail with dark lateral spots; venter white (Blanford, 1874; Leviton et al., 1992, Yousefkhani et al. 2015).
 
CommentSubspecies: Haas 1957 rejects the erection of the Syrian subspecies, Mesalina brevirostris microlepis, by ANGEL 1936. However, SMID et al. 2017 elevated both subspecies, microlepis and bernoulli, to full species, and synonymized Mesalina brevirostris fieldi (HAAS & WERNER 1969) with bernoulli.

Distribution: see map in SMID et al. 2017: Fig. 1, and Kapli et al. 2008: 104 (Fig. 1). See map in Burriel-Carranza et al. 2019 for map in UAE. Mesalina brevirostris is replaced in Egypt by M. microlepis. 
EtymologyNamed after Latin “brevis, -e” = short and “rostrum” = beak, proboscis, trunk. 
References
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