Animalia > Chordata > Squamata > Agamidae > Moloch > Moloch horridus

Moloch horridus (Thorny Devil, Mountain Devil)

Synonyms: Acanthosaurus gibbosus

Wikipedia Abstract

The thorny dragon or thorny devil (Moloch horridus) is an Australian Lizard, also known as the mountain devil, the thorny lizard, or the moloch. This is the sole species of genus Moloch. The thorny dragon grows up to 20 cm (7.9 in) in length, and it can live for 15 to 20 years. Most of these lizards are coloured in camouflaging shades of desert browns and tans. These colours change from pale colours during warm weather and to darker colours during cold weather. These animals are covered entirely with conical spines that are mostly uncalcified.
View Wikipedia Record: Moloch horridus

Attributes

Adult Weight [1]  31 grams
Birth Weight [2]  1 grams
Female Weight [2]  20 grams
Diet [3]  Carnivore
Hibernates [3]  Yes
Litter Size [2]  7
Litters / Year [2]  1
Reproductive Mode [4]  Oviparous
Snout to Vent Length [2]  3.543 inches (9 cm)
Habitat Substrate [4]  Terrestrial

Ecoregions

Protected Areas

Name IUCN Category Area acres Location Species Website Climate Land Use
Uluru - Kata Tjuta National Park II 332429 Northern Territory, Australia

Ecosystems

Biodiversity Hotspots

Name Location Endemic Species Website
Southwest Australia Australia No

Predators

Varanus gouldii (Sand Monitor, Gould's Goanna)[5]
Varanus tristis orientalis (Black-tailed Monitor, Black-headed Monitor)[5]

Consumers

Parasitized by 
Eimeria molochis <Unverified Name>[6]
Parapharyngodon kartana <Unverified Name>[7]

External References

Citations

Attributes / relations provided by
♦ 1Length–weight allometries in lizards, S. Meiri, Journal of Zoology 281 (2010) 218–226
♦ 2Nathan P. Myhrvold, Elita Baldridge, Benjamin Chan, Dhileep Sivam, Daniel L. Freeman, and S. K. Morgan Ernest. 2015. An amniote life-history database to perform comparative analyses with birds, mammals, and reptiles. Ecology 96:3109
♦ 3Myers, P., R. Espinosa, C. S. Parr, T. Jones, G. S. Hammond, and T. A. Dewey. 2006. The Animal Diversity Web (online). Accessed February 01, 2010 at animaldiversity.org
♦ 4Meiri, Shai (2019), Data from: Traits of lizards of the world: variation around a successful evolutionary design, Dryad, Dataset, https://doi.org/10.5061/dryad.f6t39kj
♦ 5Comparative ecology of Varanus in the Great Victoria Desert, Eric R. Pianka, Australian Journal of Ecology (1994) 19, 395-408
♦ 6Species Interactions of Australia Database, Atlas of Living Australia, Version ala-csv-2012-11-19
♦ 7Gibson, D. I., Bray, R. A., & Harris, E. A. (Compilers) (2005). Host-Parasite Database of the Natural History Museum, London
Ecoregions provided by World Wide Fund For Nature (WWF). WildFinder: Online database of species distributions, ver. 01.06 Wildfinder Database
Biodiversity Hotspots provided by Critical Ecosystem Partnership Fund
Abstract provided by DBpedia licensed under a Creative Commons License
Species taxanomy provided by GBIF Secretariat (2022). GBIF Backbone Taxonomy. Checklist dataset https://doi.org/10.15468/39omei accessed via GBIF.org on 2023-06-13; License: CC BY 4.0