Thorny devil

For defense it wears a spiny "false head" on the back of its neck: when threatened it tucks its real head down between its front legs and presents the decoy instead. It travels in a slow, jerky rock, freezing and swaying like a wind-blown leaf.

Despite the fearsome name and armor of spines, it is harmless and slow, an ant specialist that can eat thousands of small ants in a single day, taken one at a time with its sticky tongue.

Experiments show it can draw water up its legs from damp sand alone; the channels in its skin move the moisture uphill against gravity toward its jaws.

It is the only species in its genus and lives nowhere on Earth but the deserts of Australia, shifting from pale colors in the heat to darker ones when cold.