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Mesalina watsonana (STOLICZKA, 1872)

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Higher TaxaLacertidae, Eremiadinae, Sauria, Lacertoidea, Squamata (lizards)
Subspecies 
Common NamesE: Persian Long-Tailed Desert Lizard 
SynonymEremias (Mesalina) watsonana STOLICZKA 1872: 86
Mesalina watsonana — MURRAY 1884: 349
Mesalina pardalis BLANFORD 1876: 26 (not LICHTENSTEIN; fide SMITH 1935)
Mesalina pardaloides BLANFORD 1874: 32 (fide SMITH 1935)
Eremias guttulata watsonana — SMITH 1935: 389
Eremias guttulata watsonana — LEVITON 1959: 452
Eremias guttulata watsonana — ANDERSON & LEVITON 1969
Mesalina guttulata watsonana — NILSON & ANDREN 1981: 138
Mesalina guttulata watsonana — SZCZERBAK 1989
Mesalina watsonana — BISCHOFF 1995
Eremias guttulata watsonana — DAS 1996: 49
Mesalina watsonana — SINDACO & JEREMČENKO 2008
Mesalina watsonana — NASRABADI et al. 2017 
DistributionIran, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, NW India

Type locality: between Karachi and Sukkur, Sind.  
Reproductionoviparous 
TypesSyntypes: BMNH 74.4.29.1436/1946.8.7.75, ZSI 4929, 5050, 5223-5225, NMW, ZSI 5224–25, 4929, 5050, 5223 
DiagnosisDiagnosis: Three nasals, lower in contact with rostral
and first supralabial; ventral plates in 10 (rarely 8) straight longitudinal series; small occipital present; larger transparent scales of lower eyelid edged with black. Collar complete or nearly so, its scales distinctly enlarged (Smith, 1935). Hemipenis relatively long, the basal parts of the lobes not folded, although the apical sections are; armature very elongate and cleft for most of its length with narrow clavulae; lips of sulcus strongly developed (Arnold, 1986). Grayish or olivaceous above; dorsum with longitudinal series of small white spots edged with black on flanks; often light dorsolateral stripe running to eye; limbs marbled with black and white; black streak on posterior aspect of thigh; venter whitish, some indi- viduals from some localities having pale yellow throat and chest (Stoliczka, 1872, Yousefkhani et al. 2015). 
CommentDistribution: See map in SMID et al. 2014 for distribution in Iran.

Phylogenetics: Baroumand et al. 2024 found seven clades within this species, corresponding to distinct geographic regions. These authors suggest to elevate all clades to the species level without naming or diagnosing them though. 
References
  • Ahmadzadeh, Faraham ; Petros Lymberakis; Reyhaneh Saberi Pirouz, Paschalia Kapli 2017. The evolutionary history of two lizards (Squamata: Lacertidae) is linked to the geological development of Iran. Zoologischer Anzeiger 270: 49–56 - get paper here
  • Anderson, Steven C 1999. The lizards of Iran. Contributions to Herpetology Volume 15, Society for the Study of Amphibians and Reptiles, Saint Louis, Missouri: i-vii, 1-442 [review in Copeia 2000 (4): 1144] - get paper here
  • Baig, KJ, Masroor, R., and Arshad, M. 2008. Biodiversity and ecology of the herpetofauna of Cholistan Desert, Pakistan. Russ. J. Herpetol. 15 (3): 193-205 - get paper here
  • Blanford, W.T. 1874. Descriptions of new Reptilia and Amphibia from Persia and Baluchistan. Ann. Mag. nat. Hist. (4) 14: 31-35 - get paper here
  • Blanford, W.T. 1876. On some lizards from Sind, with descriptions of new species of Ptyodactylus, Stenodactylus, and Trapelus. J. Asiat. Soc. Bengal 45: 232-233 [1875] - get paper here
  • Boroumand, H., Saberi‐Pirooz, R., Bafti, S. S., Böhme, W., & Ahmadzadeh, F. 2024. Speciation in the Iranian plateau: Molecular phylogeny and evolutionary history of the Persian long‐tailed desert lizard. Zoologica Scripta - get paper here
  • Clark, R. J., Clark, E. D. and Anderson, S. C. 1966. Report on two small collections of reptiles from Iran. Occ. Pap. Cal. Acad. Sci. (55): 1-9 - get paper here
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  • Damadi, Ehsan; Rasoul Karamiani; Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani; Ali Gholamifard 2017. A checklist of lizards from southeastern part of the Sistan and Baluchestan Province in southeastern Iran. Iranian Journal of Animal Biosystematics, DOI: 10.22067/ijab.v13i1.50398 - get paper here
  • Ebrahimipour, Farnaz; Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani, Batoul Ghorbani 2016. A Preliminary Study of the Reptile’s Fauna in Northwestern Yazd Province, Iran. Russ. J. Herpetol. 23 (4): 243-248 - get paper here
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  • Hosseinian Yousefkhani, S.S. & Rastegar-Pouyani, E. & Rastegar-Pouyani, N. 2013. Most records of Mesalina watsonana (STOLICZKA, 1872) are situated in average elevation on the Iranian Plateau. L@CERTIDAE (Eidechsen Online) 2013 [1]: 1-6 - get paper here
  • Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Seyyed Saeed,Nasrullah RASTEGAR-POUYANI, Eskandar RASTEGAR-POUYANI 2013. Morphological variation among populations of Mesalina watsonana (Stoliczka, 1872) (Sauria: Lacertidae) in Iran. Turk J Zool 37: 676-684 - get paper here
  • Hosseinian-Yousefkhani, Seyyed Saeed, Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani, Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani, Rafaqat Masroor, and Jiří Šmíd 2013. Modelling the potential distribution of Mesalina watsonana (Stoliczka, 1872) (Reptilia: Lacertidae) on the Iranian Plateau. Zoology in the Middle East 59 (3): - get paper here
  • Hosseinian-Yousefkhani, Seyyed Saeed; Gabriel M.D. Marmol Marin, Nasrullah Rastegar-Pouyani, Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani 2015. A Bibliographic Recompilation of the Genus Mesalina Gray, 1838 (Sauria: Lacertidae) with a Key to the Species. Russ. J. Herpetol. 22 (1): 23-34 - get paper here
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