Moloch

Thorny Dragon

Moloch horridus 

Rawr

This little guy is native to Australia (home to everything scary, poisonous, and dangerous). But this little dragon doesn't fall under any of those categories; this lizard is actually very gentle-natured. It's appearance serves more for defense purposes. The "thrones" all over its body are actually modified scales that make them hard for predators to swallow. Furthermore, since the Australian desert is very dry, the scales around its body have a capillaries system that move water into the mouth, please see picture below (because I suck at explaining things).

Thorny Dragons have the ability to change colors depending on what the color of the sand around them is or the temperature of their body. They live up to 20 years and grow up to 20 cm. It takes them about three years to reach maturity. 

Australia is like the Salty Spitoon of the Earth, if you want to survive, you gotta be tough! But if you're not tough and you don't run very fast, you have to think of creative ways to survive. Aside from being spiky as on of its defenses, these guys grew an false head to throw off predators. When if feels threatened, it will tuck its real head between its legs and leave the fake head to be poked at. 

Thorny Dragons are easy to please. They eat ants, maybe some termites, and more ants. They'll eat up to 3,000 ants in one meal! 

Not here Khaleesi...