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

Thorny devils live in the dry inland deserts of Australia. Up close, the reptiles look like monsters. They have spikes from their heads to the tips of their tails! But if you zoom out, you’ll see that thorny devils aren’t so scary. They’re pretty small, only growing to about 8 inches (21 cm). And the lizards move slowly in jerky movements. (See Video.)

The spikes on a thorny devil help protect it from predators. The animal also has another funky feature. It’s a fake head! This faker is a lump on the back of a thorny devil’s neck. When the creature is threatened, it will duck its real head between its legs. Then, its fake head looks real!

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

Scientist Philipp Comanns studied this strange skill. “It is very cool seeing these lizards standing in a puddle and finally start to move their mouths as they drink,” he said. But there’s one problem. Thorny devils live in dry deserts where there aren’t many puddles. So how do they drink? 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 some of its secrets for now. Would you dare to learn more about this mini monster?


Updated May 22, 2020, 5:02 P.M. (ET)
By Ashley Morgan