Digimorph - Moloch horridus (thorny devil) DigiMorph Home About DigiMorph DigiMorph Help Sponsors Links Recent Publications DigiMorph People Browse the Library by: Scientific Names Common Names What's Popular? Learn More X-ray CT 3-D Printing Overview Pages Dinosaurs Tapirs Horned Lizards Endocasts A Production of UTCT UT Geosciences TMM DigiMorph Contributors Expert annotation Moloch horridus, Thorny Devil Dr. Eric Pianka - The University of Texas at Austin Java Slice Viewer inspeCTor Slice Movies Coronal - 2.8mb Horizontal - 1mb Sagittal - 1mb Download Data STL - 14.6mb CT Scan - n/a Skeleton Only Roll - 2mb Pitch - 1.7mb Yaw - 1.4mb With Skin/Matrix Roll - 3.4mb Pitch - 3.1mb Yaw - 2.4mb Dynamic Cutaway Coronal - n/a Horizontal - n/a Sagittal - 1.8mb Private Collection of Dr. Eric Pianka Image processing: Dr. Jessie Maisano Image processing: Dr. Amy Balanoff Publication Date: 24 Mar 2003 Views: whole specimen | head only ITIS TNS Google MSN Commonly known as thorny devils, the Australian agamid lizard Moloch horridus is protected from predation by numerous sharp spines on its head, body, legs and tail. When threatened, thorny devils tuck their head between their forelegs, leaving the prominent spiny "false head" on the back of their necks in the position of their real head, making them virtually impossible to swallow. They also utilize camouflage to escape detection. Thorny devils are ant specialists, eating virtually nothing else.