NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Blanford's Short-Nosed Desert Lizard
Mesalina brevirostris Blanford, 1874
Source-backed taxonomic record
Accepted species in Catalogue of Life’s 11 September 2026 base release. This preserves the source classification and available supporting data; it is not a completed species monograph.
Open encyclopedia reference
Mesalina brevirostris, also known as Blanford's short-nosed desert lizard, is a species of sand-dwelling lizard in the family Lacertidae. It occurs in Saudi Arabia, Qatar, Iran, and United Arab Emirates.
Wikipedia contributors, Mesalina brevirostris; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T13:16:13.135364+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Mesalina brevirostris Blanford, 1874
- Name authority
- Blanford, 1874
- Common name
- Blanford's Short-Nosed Desert Lizard
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Lacertidae
- Genus
- Mesalina
- Extinction status
- Not supplied by this source
Classification family tree
Nested taxonomic groups from the source. This is not a direct-ancestor chain, a dated evolutionary tree or a phylogenetic reconstruction.
- domainEukaryota (Chatton, 1925) Whittaker & Margulis, 1978
- kingdomAnimalia
- phylumChordata
- subphylumVertebrata
- infraphylumGnathostomata
- parvphylumOsteichthyes
- megaclassTetrapoda
- classReptilia Laurenti, 1768
- orderSquamata Oppel, 1811
- suborderAutarchoglossa
- familyLacertidae
- genusMesalina
- speciesMesalina brevirostris Blanford, 1874
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Mesalina. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Hadramaut Sand LizardMesalina adramitana (Boulenger, 1917) | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| El Din’s Desert LizardMesalina bahaeldini Segoli, Cohen & Werner, 2002 | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Desert LacertaMesalina guttulata (Lichtenstein, 1823) | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Abd al-Kuri Desert LizardMesalina kuri Joger & Mayer, 2002 | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Martin’s Desert RacerMesalina martini (Boulenger, 1897) | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Pasteur's LizardMesalina pasteuri (Bons, 1960) | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Red-spotted LizardMesalina rubropunctata (Lichtenstein, 1823) | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Arnold’s Desert LizardMesalina arnoldi Sindaco, Simó-Riudalbas, Sacchi & Carranza, 2018 | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Southern-Arabian Desert LizardMesalina austroarabica Sindaco, Simó-Riudalbas, Sacchi & Carranza, 2018 | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Bernoulli’s Short-Nosed Desert LizardMesalina bernoullii (Schenkel, 1901) | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Small-scaled Desert LizardMesalina microlepis (Angel, 1936) | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Arabian short-nosed desert lizardMesalina saudiarabica Moravec, Smid, Schmitz, Shobrak & Wilms, 2017 | LacertidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Documented distribution
Source distribution statements, not a complete range map. A listed locality is not necessarily a place of origin.
Source literature & publication evidence
References attached to this source record, including nomenclatural citations where supplied. This is a selected bibliography; abbreviated citations remain in the source’s form.
- https://reptile-database.reptarium.cz/species?genus=Mesalina&species=brevirostris Source fields: Taxon.tsv dwc:namePublishedIn, Taxon.tsv dcterms:references
Origins, evidence & remaining research
Name authority and publication references document nomenclature where the source supplies it. They do not establish evolutionary origins or the earliest fossil occurrence.
Specimen-level evidence, morphology, ecological research, phylogenetic studies, a comprehensive bibliography and a located literary passage have not yet been compiled for this record. A suitable sourced image remains to be added.
Dataset citation & attribution
This exact taxon in ChecklistBank · Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11
Catalogue of Life 2026-09-11; dataset 316321; doi:10.48580/dgz5n. https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ . Retrieved 5 October 2026.
Stable key: col:3ZXLS. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.