Reptilia · Squamata
Mesalina simoniBoettger, 1881
Simon’s Desert Lizard
Photograph by Julien Renoult, CC BY, via iNaturalist
A day-active lizard from the Saharo-Sindian region, reaching 51 mm snout to vent.
Once published as Mesalina simonii — those names reach this page.
Reptilia › Squamata › Lacertidae › Mesalina
- Grows to
- 51mm
- greatest recorded
- Active
- Diurnal
- Weighs up to
- 3.13g
- greatest
- Red List
- Least Concern
Longer than only 8% of all species in Lacertidae anyone has measured.
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
29 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
- Least Concern
- Status assessed · the year the Red List last looked
- 2006
- Population trend
- Stable
The animal itself
- Limbs
- Four legs
- Venomous
- No
- Fangs
- None
Size
- Length snout to vent · greatest recorded
- 51mm2 in
- Length snout to vent · adult female mean
- 45.5mm1.75 in
- Body mass · greatestcomputed
- 3.13g0.11 oz
- Body mass · adult female, meanmeasured
- 3g0.11 oz
Shai Meiri, unpublished
computed from length by a family-level allometric equation, not weighed
How it lives
- Active
- Diurnal
- Habitat
- Rocky
- Biome
- Mediterranean
- Region
- Saharo-Sindian
- Mainland or island
- Mainland
- Lowest it lives · above sea level
- 253m
- Highest it lives · above sea level
- 1020m
- Range size
- 55,849km²
Pierre-Andre Crochet & Philipp Wagner Personal communication to Enav Vidan, October 2015
0-1020 (del Marmol et al. 2019)
Breeding
- Reproduction
- Oviparous
- Average clutch
- 3eggs
- Eggs or young per clutch
- 3eggs
Naming and history
- Suborder
- Sauria
- Infraorder
- Laterata
- Subspecies
- Mesalina simoni simoni (BOETTGER 1881) Mesalina simoni saharae PIZZIGALLI, CROCHET, GENIEZ, MARTÍNEZ-FREIRIA, VELO-ANTÓN & BRITO 2021
- Described by
- Boettger
- Moved to another genus · since it was first described
- Yes
- Described in
- 1881
- Type locality
- Morocco
Keeping one
8 in × 8 in × 5 in(20 × 20 × 13 cm)
Minimum length × width × height, for one animal. Bigger is always better.
The standard sizes ground-dwelling species at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times snout-vent length.
Mindestanforderungen an die Haltung von Reptilien (Sachverständigengutachten), German Federal Ministry for Nutrition, Agriculture and Forestry, Animal Welfare Division, 10 January 1997. The standard states these floor areas are recommendations rather than binding limits.
From this animal’s own snout-vent length of 2 in (51 mm), at 4 × 4 × 2.5 times it, following the German federal welfare standard — how this is worked out.
No preferred body temperature has been recorded for Simon’s Desert Lizard. Rather than repeat a number from a care sheet, this page leaves it out.
Feeding
1kJ per day
Worked out for an animal of 3 g, the heaviest recorded for Simon’s Desert Lizard — so it is the top of the range, not a figure for a particular animal. Weigh yours and the number will be lower.
An upper estimate, not a feeding target, and not veterinary advice. The equation covers only what an animal burns staying alive, so a growing, gravid or recovering animal needs more — and it was measured on wild animals, which move far more than one in an enclosure. Body condition and a vet who knows the species are what a feeding decision should rest on. Where this comes from.
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
- — Where it lives
- — How the young develop
- — Gestation or incubation
- — 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
- — 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
Take this data
Everything on this page is available as data under CC BY 4.0 — use it freely, credit it, no permission needed.
This species as JSON · the whole dataset
Cite this page
The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia (2026). Mesalina simoni. Retrieved 2026-09-08, from https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/mesalina-simoni
@misc{mesalina_simoni_2026,
title = {Mesalina simoni},
author = {{The Reptile & Amphibian Encyclopedia}},
year = {2026},
url = {https://www.allanglescreatures.com/species/mesalina-simoni}
}Sources
- Meiri, S. (2024). SquamBase — a database of squamate (Reptilia: Squamata) traits. Global Ecology and Biogeography. Public domain (CC0).
- Oskyrko, O. et al. (2024). ReptTraits: a comprehensive dataset of ecological traits in reptiles. Scientific Data. Used under CC BY 4.0.
- Catalogue of Life (dataset 3LR), used under CC BY.