The thorny devil is also called the thorny dragon. Don’t worry, though. This lizard doesn’t breathe fire. It scuttles around slurping up ants! Let’s learn more about the spiky creature.

Thorny devils live in the deserts of Australia. Up close, the reptiles look like monsters. They have spikes from their heads to their tails! But if you zoom out, thorny devils aren’t so scary. They’re pretty small. And the lizards move slowly in jerky movements. (See Video.)

The spikes help protect the thorny devil. The animal also has another funky feature. It’s a fake head! This faker is a lump on the neck. The lizard can duck its real head. Then, its fake head looks real!

The thorny devil looks for lines of ants. It uses its short, sticky tongue to eat thousands each day! There’s something this tongue can’t do though. It doesn’t lap up water. The thorny devil drinks through its skin! The lizard’s skin has tiny channels that let water in. The thorny devil just has to stand in the water. The channels move the drink to the mouth!

Scientist Philipp Comanns studied this skill. “It is cool seeing these lizards standing in a puddle and start to move their mouths,” he said. But there’s one problem. Thorny devils live in dry deserts. So how do they get enough water? Comanns tried to find out. His 2016 report said thorny devils can get water from damp sand. It’s unclear if that’s enough to live on though.

So, the spike-tastic species will keep its secrets. Would you dare to learn more about this mini monster?


Updated May 22, 2020, 5:01 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan