Mesalina Gray 1838
Creators: name: Jiří Šmíd
name: Jiří Moravec
name: Gvoždík, Václav
name: Štundl, Jan
name: Frynta, Daniel
name: Lymberakis, Petros
name: Paschalia Kapli
name: Wilms, Thomas
name: Schmitz, Andreas
name: Shobrak, Mohammed
name: Yousefkhani, Saeed Hosseinian
name: Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani
name: Castilla, Aurora M.
name: Els, Johannes
name: Mayer, Werner
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2017
Subjects: Biodiversity
Taxonomy
Animalia
Chordata
Reptilia
Squamata
Lacertidae
Mesalina

description: Taxonomy of <i>Mesalina</i> The taxonomy of the genus <i>Mesalina</i> has been relatively stable over the past decades compared to other Middle Eastern Eremiadini (e.g., <i>Acanthodactylus</i>, <i>Eremias</i>). The last species were described in 2002 (<i>M. kuri</i> by Joger &amp; Mayer, 2002; and <i>M. bahaeldini</i> by Segoli et al., 2002). The taxonomic adjustments recommended herein emphasise how the diversity of a relatively well-known species may actually be underestimated. <i>Mesalina saudiarabica</i> sp. n. described here from western Arabia contributes to the intensively growing knowledge on the evolution and systematics of the pan-Arabian reptile fauna within the last years (Carranza et al., 2016; Kapli et al., 2015; Metallinou et al., 2012, 2015; de Pous et al., 2016; Šmíd, Shobrak, Wilms, Joger, &amp; Carranza, 2017; Šmíd, Carranza, et al., 2013; Šmíd, Moravec, et al., 2013; Šmíd et al., 2015; Tamar, Carranza, et al., 2016; Tamar, Scholz, et al., 2016). As some of the studies show, cryptic and previously unrecognised species are present along the western Arabian mountains, and more species descriptions from there may thus be expected. For future taxonomic work on <i>Mesalina,</i> it is important to note that <i>M. saudiarabica</i> sp. n. is not any of Arnold’s (1980, 1986c) undescribed south Arabian species (<i>Mesalina</i> sp. A from the mountains of Yemen and Saudi Arabia and <i>M</i>. sp. B from Dhofar, Oman). Its presence was not recorded until the material for recent phylogenetic studies (Kapli et al., 2015; this study) had become available. Further effort should be dedicated to obtaining genetic data from the two supposedly new species mentioned by Arnold (1980, 1986c) as well as from two narrowranging species that have not yet been analysed genetically and placed in a phylogenetic framework, <i>M. ayunensis</i> and <i>M. ercolinii</i> (Lanza &amp; Poggesi, 1975). Such data may shed new light on the evolutionary history and hopefully help to untangle relationships within some of the other <i>Mesalina</i> species complexes.
description: Published as part of <i>Jiří Šmíd, Jiří Moravec, Václav Gvoždík, Jan Štundl, Daniel Frynta, Petros Lymberakis, Paschalia Kapli, Thomas Wilms, Andreas Schmitz, Mohammed Shobrak, Saeed Hosseinian Yousefkhani, Eskandar Rastegar-Pouyani, Aurora M. Castilla, Johannes Els &amp; Werner Mayer, 2017, Cutting the Gordian Knot: Phylogenetic and ecological diversification of the Mesalina brevirostris species complex (Squamata, Lacertidae), pp. 1-30 in Zoologica Scripta 46 (6)</i> on page 13, DOI: 10.1111/zsc.12254, http://zenodo.org/record/1037920
description: {"references": ["Joger, U., &amp; Mayer, W. (2002). A new species of Mesalina (Reptilia: Lacertidae) from Abd al-Kuri, Socotra archipelago, Yemen, and a preliminary molecular phylogeny for the genus Mesalina. Fauna of Arabia, 19, 497 - 505.", "Segoli, M., Cohen, T., &amp; Werner, Y. L. (2002). A new lizard of the genus Mesalina from Mt. Sinai, Egypt. Faunistiche Abhandlungen Staatliches Museum fur Tierkunde Dresden, 23, 157 - 176.", "Carranza, S., Simo-Riudalbas, M., Jayasinghe, S., Wilms, T., &amp; Els, J. (2016). Microendemicity in the northern Hajar Mountains of Oman and the United Arab Emirates with the description of two new species of geckos of the genus Asaccus (Squamata: Phyllodactylidae). PeerJ, 4, e 2371.", "Kapli, P., Lymberakis, P., Crochet, P. A., Geniez, P., Brito, J. C., Almutairi, M., \u2026 Poulakakis, N. (2015). Historical biogeography of the lacertid lizard Mesalina in north Africa and the Middle East. Journal of Biogeography, 42, 267 - 279.", "Metallinou, M., Arnold, E. N., Crochet, P. - A., Geniez, P., Brito, J. C., Lymberakis, P., \u2026 Carranza, S. (2012). Conquering the Sahara and Arabian deserts: Systematics and biogeography of Stenodactylus geckos (Reptilia: Gekkonidae). BMC Evolutionary Biology, 12 (258), 1 - 17.", "Metallinou, M., Cervenka, J., Crochet, P. - A., Kratochvil, L., Wilms, T., Geniez, P., \u2026 Carranza, S. (2015). Species on the rocks: Systematics and biogeography of the rock-dwelling Ptyodactylus geckos (Squamata: Phyllodactylidae) in North Africa and Arabia. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 85, 208 - 220.", "de Pous, P., Machado, L., Metallinou, M., Cervenka, J., Kratochvil, L., Paschou, N., \u2026 Carranza, S. (2016). Taxonomy and biogeography of Bunopus spatalurus (Reptilia; Gekkonidae) from the Arabian Peninsula. Journal of Zoological Systematics and Evolutionary Research, 54, 67 - 81.", "Smid, J., Shobrak, M., Wilms, T., Joger, U., &amp; Carranza, S. (2017). Endemic diversification in the mountains: Genetic, morphological, and geographical differentiation of the Hemidactylus geckos in southwestern Arabia. Organisms, Diversity and Evolution, 17, 267 - 285.", "Smid, J., Carranza, S., Kratochvil, L., Gvozdik, V., Nasher, A. K., &amp; Moravec, J. (2013). Out of Arabia: A complex biogeographic history of multiple vicariance and dispersal events in the gecko genus Hemidactylus (Reptilia: Gekkonidae). PLoS One, 8 (5), e 64018.", "Smid, J., Moravec, J., Kratochvil, L., Nasher, A. K., Mazuch, T., Gvozdik, V., &amp; Carranza, S. (2015). Multilocus phylogeny and taxonomic revision of the Hemidactylus robustus species group (Reptilia, Gekkonidae) with descriptions of three new species from Yemen and Ethiopia. Systematics and Biodiversity, 13, 346 - 368.", "Tamar, K., Carranza, S., Sindaco, R., Moravec, J., Trape, J. - F., &amp; Meiri, S. (2016). Out of Africa: Phylogeny and biogeography of the widespread genus Acanthodactylus (Reptilia: Lacertidae). Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 103, 6 - 18.", "Tamar, K., Scholz, S., Crochet, P. - A., Geniez, P., Meiri, S., Schmitz, A., \u2026 Carranza, S. (2016). Evolution around the Red Sea: Systematics and biogeography of the agamid genus Pseudotrapelus (Squamata: Agamidae) from North Africa and Arabia. Molecular Phylogenetics and Evolution, 97, 55 - 68.", "Arnold, E. N. (1980). The reptiles and amphibians of Dhofar, southern Arabia. Journal of Oman Studies, Special Report, 2, 273 - 332.", "Arnold, E. N. (1986 c). Why copulatory organs provide so many useful taxonomic characters: The origin and maintenance of hemipenial differences in lacertid lizards (Reptilia: Lacertidae). Biological Journal of the Linnean Society, 29, 263 - 281."]}