Thorny Devil Lizard

Australian Horned Lizard or Thorny Devil

The Thorny Devil is covered in spiny, warty protuberances. Narrow channels between the scales act to draw precious droplets of dew or rain to its mouth by capillary action. The horns are mostly hollow modified scales.

The lizard has many names - "Devil Lizard", "Thorny Devil", "Horned Lizard", "Thorny Toad", "Thorny Dragon" and other variations. There are quite a few species of horned lizards. The Australian Thorny Devil is only a distant cousin of the horned lizard of the Americas although they do look quite similar and both sit around eating ants.

Horned Lizard

One big advantage of having so many horns is that to their predators, it makes them appear a very difficult meal to swallow.

Baby Horned Lizard

The most famous and outstanding feature of the Texas Horned Lizards is of course even more fantastic than its thorns - it can squirt blood from its eyes. Some can hit enemies up to 10 feet or 3m away.

Wikipedia excerpt for "Horned lizard":

Horned lizards (Phrynosoma) are a genus of the Phrynosomatidae family of lizards. The spines on its back and sides are made from modified scales, whereas the horns on the heads are true horns (i.e. they have a horny core). There are 14 species of horned lizards in North America, 8 of which are native to the United States. The largest-bodied and most widely distributed of the U.S. species is the Texas horned lizard (P. cornutum)...

See full Wikipedia Horned lizard article

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