NATURAL HISTORY · CATALOGUE RECORD
Hardwick's spiny-tailed lizard
Saara hardwickii (Gray, 1827)
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.
Spiny-tailed Lizard, Uromastyx hardwickii, Family Agamidae(Sauria). Photographed by Aashay Baindur on 05 Jun 2006 in Thar desert, Jaisalmer district, Rajasthan, India. Self-work. Nature Loader 16:47, 6 June 2006 (UTC)
No machine-readable author provided. Nature Loader assumed (based on copyright claims). · CC BY-SA 2.5 · Image sourceProvider-generated thumbnail requested at 800 pixels; no local editing Local WebP display rendition; resized without cropping.
Open encyclopedia reference
Saara hardwickii, commonly known as Hardwicke's spiny-tailed lizard or the Indian spiny-tailed lizard is a species of lizard in the family Agamidae. The species is found in patches across the Thar Desert, Kutch, and surrounding arid zones in India and Pakistan. It is mainly herbivorous and lives in numbers in some areas. Since it is found in loose clusters it often attracts predators such as raptors. It is also hunted by local peoples in the belief that the fat extracted from it is an aphrodisiac.
Wikipedia contributors, Saara hardwickii; see linked history · CC BY-SA 4.0 . Plain-text lead excerpt, at most 180 words; no infobox or later sections Retrieved 2026-10-05T12:13:53.642347+00:00. This reference remains separate from the taxonomic record.
Identity & source status
- Scientific name
- Saara hardwickii (Gray, 1827)
- Name authority
- (Gray, 1827)
- Common name
- Hardwick's spiny-tailed lizard
- Rank
- species
- Accepted status
- accepted
- Kingdom
- Animalia
- Phylum
- Chordata
- Class
- Reptilia
- Order
- Squamata
- Family
- Agamidae
- Genus
- Saara
- 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
- suborderIguania
- familyAgamidae
- subfamilyUromastycinae
- genusSaara
- speciesSaara hardwickii (Gray, 1827)
Close classified relatives
These entries share the source’s genus, Saara. They are not necessarily the closest relatives established by molecular evidence.
| Species | Classification | Source status |
|---|---|---|
| Iraqi MastigureSaara loricata (Blanford, 1874) | AgamidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
| Iranian MastigureSaara asmussi (Strauch, 1863) | AgamidaeChordata | Accepted speciesExtinction status not supplied |
Names & synonyms
Names explicitly linked to this accepted taxon in the source. Synonymy can change with revision.
| Recorded name | Source status |
|---|---|
| Uromastyx griseus Cuvier, 1829 Cuvier, 1829 | synonym |
| Centrocercus similis Fitzinger, 1843 Fitzinger, 1843 | synonym |
| Uromastix hardwickii Gray ex Hardwicke & Gray, 1827 Gray ex Hardwicke & Gray, 1827 | synonym |
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=Saara&species=hardwickii 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.
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:78YKW. Classification follows source parent identifiers. English common names may vary by region.