All Angles Creatures
Squamata · LacertidaeEntry 12,936 of 21,572

Reptilia · Squamata

Mesalina ercoliniiLanza & Poggesi, 1975

Ercolini’s Desert Lizard

No photograph of this species exists under a license anyone may reuse. It gets the same page regardless.

A lizard from the Afrotropic region, reaching 66 mm snout to vent.

Once published as Eremias ercolini — those names reach this page.

ReptiliaSquamataLacertidaeMesalina

We do not have enough on this species yet

Catalogue of Life records this animal’s name, its family and where it sits in the tree of life. Beyond that, only 24 facts are on record — no diet, no lifespan, nothing we would be willing to publish as an entry.

So this page waits here rather than pretending to be one. It is not listed and not submitted to search engines. If you know this animal and can point us at a published source, we would rather have it right than have it soon.

Grows to
66mm
greatest recorded
Weighs up to
6.71g
greatest
Red List
Data Deficient
Body length across Lacertidae

Longer than only 44% of all species in Lacertidae anyone has measured.

44% of 372 species are smaller56% larger
35 mmthe whole family, smallest to largest444 mm

The bar is the rank itself: its length is the share of the family this animal exceeds. The chart below is the family’s real spread, on a logarithmic scale because body length here runs from 35 to 444 mm. The solid rule is this animal. Every bar is a count of real species, and nothing on this figure is estimated.

What is known

24 sourced facts, each taken from a named scientific dataset. How to read these.

Cited from a dataset unless a row is marked otherwise.

Standing in the world

Still living
Extant
Conservation status
Data Deficient
Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
2019

The animal itself

Limbs
Four legs
Venomous
No
Fangs
None

Size

Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
66mm2.5 in

max 66 mm SVL (Feldman et al. 2016)

Length snout to vent · adult female mean
66mm2.5 in
Body mass · greatestcomputed
6.71g0.24 oz

computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed

Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
2.65g0.09 oz

How it lives

Habitat
Savanna, Shrubland
Biome
Tropical & Subtropical Grasslands, Savannas & Shrublands
Region
Afrotropic
Mainland or island
Mainland
Elevation · above sea level
130–140m

138 (Spawls et al. 2023)

Range size
10km²

Breeding

Average clutch
5.5eggs

Naming and history

Suborder
Sauria
Infraorder
Laterata
Subspecies
No
Described by
Lanza & Poggesi
Moved to another genus · since it was first described
Yes
Described in
1975
Type locality
Somalia

What nobody knows

These are not gaps in our research. No scientific dataset records them for this species — and saying so is information you cannot get from a reference that simply leaves a field out.

  • Length snout to vent · adult male mean
  • Length snout to vent · adult mean
  • Length nose to tail · greatest recorded
  • Female length · mean, nose to tail
  • Length nose to tail · adult male mean
  • Length nose to tail · adult mean
  • Largest female · snout to vent
  • Largest male · snout to vent
  • Largest female · shell length
  • Largest male · shell length
  • Hatchling length · snout to vent
  • Hatchling length · nose to tail
  • Largest juvenile · snout to vent
  • Largest juvenile · shell length
  • Egg length
  • Egg width
  • Body mass · a typical adult
  • Body mass at hatching
  • Longest recorded life
  • Preferred body temperature · chosen in a laboratory gradient
  • Body temperature when active · measured in the wild
  • Diet
  • Eats arthropods
  • Eats vertebrates
  • Eats plant matter
  • How it hunts
  • Active
  • Where it lives
  • Reproduction
  • How the young develop
  • Gestation or incubation
  • Smallest clutch recorded
  • Largest clutch recorded
  • Mean clutch · smallest reported
  • Mean clutch · largest reported
  • Clutches in a year
  • Clutches a year · fewest
  • Clutches a year · most
  • First breeds from · youngest recorded
  • First breeds by · oldest recorded
  • Hatchling length · smallest recorded
  • Hatchling length · largest recorded
  • Age at first breeding · female
  • Mature from · youngest recorded
  • Mature by · oldest recorded
  • Size at maturity · smallest recorded
  • Size at maturity · largest recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · lowest mean recorded
  • Body temp in the wild · highest mean recorded
  • Colour on the back
  • Pattern on the back
  • Pupil
  • Sex decided by
  • Population trend
  • Red List criteria
  • Active season · shortest recorded
  • Active season · longest recorded
  • Density · lowest recorded
  • Density · highest recorded
  • Home range · largest recorded
  • Active in

Others in Lacertidae

Sources

  1. Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
  2. Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
  3. Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.