Mesalina pasteuri, also known commonly as Pasteur's lizard, is a species of sand-dwelling lizard in the family Lacertidae. The species is endemic to North Africa.
Etymology The specific name, pasteuri, is in honor of French biologist Georges Pasteur.Beolens, Bo; Watkins, Michael; Grayson, Michael (2011). The Eponym Dictionary of Reptiles. Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press. xiii + 296 pp. . (Mesalina pasteuri, p. 201).
Geographic range Mesalina pasteuri occurs in Algeria, Egypt, Mali, Mauritania, Morocco, Niger, and Western Sahara.
Habitat The preferred habitat of Mesalina pasteuri is desert.
Description Mesalina pasteuri may attain a snout-to-vent length (SVL) of . The holotype, which measures SVL, has a tail long.Bons (1960).
Reproduction Mesalina pasteuri is oviparous.
References
Further reading
Bons, Jacques (1960). "Description d'un nouveau lézard du Sahara: Eremias pasteuri, sp. nov. (Lacertidés) ". Comptes rendus des séances mensuelles de la Société des Sciences naturelles et physiques du Maroc (4): 69–71. (Eremias pasteuri, new species). (in French). Schleich, H. Hermann; Kästle, Werner; Kabisch, Klaus (1996). Amphibians and Reptiles of North Africa: Biology, Systematics, Field Guide. Koenigstein, Germany: Koeltz Scientific Books. 627 pp. . (Mesalina pasteuri, p. 423). Sindaco, Roberto; Jeremčenko Valery K. (2008). The Reptiles of the Western Palearctic: 1. Annotated Checklist and Distributional Atlas of the Turtles, Crocodiles, Amphisbaenians and Lizards of Europe, North Africa, Middle East and Central Asia. Latina, Italy: Edizioni Belvedere. 580 pp. . Trape, Jean-François; Trape, Sébastien; Chirio, Laurent (2012). Lézards, crocodiles et tortues d'Afrique occidentale et du Sahara. Paris: IRD Orstom. 503 pp. . (in French).