Anatolian Snake-eyed Skink

Ablepharus anatolicus was first described by Josef Friedrich Schmidtler in 1997 as a subspecies of Budak's snake-eyed skink, which was itself previously described as a subspecies of the European snake-eyed skink, Ablephaus kitaibelli. A. anatolicus was later determined to be a phylogenetically distinct species; it can be distinguished from A. budaki budaki by its front supralabial plate morphology. The type specimens are held at the Zoologische Staatssammlung München. A study published in 2024 noted similarities in hemipenial morphology between A. anatolicus and Chernov's skink (Ablepharus chernovi) suggesting possible synonymy between the two species.

An ecological niche modeling study conducted in 2021 found that the Anatolian snake-eyed skink occupies a geographically distinct niche from Budak's snake-eyed skink (Ablepharus budukai). The Anatolian snake-eyed skink is primarily distributed in the southern ranges of the eastern Taurus mountains.