It is covered in a special armour that is made up of thorny spines. Spiky armour is used for defence. It also acts like a straw. There are little grooves in the armour which suck up water and dew. The grooves are hygroscopic which means they attract moisture. There are capillaries that take the moisture from the skin to the mouth. When the environment is extreme they can bury into the sand to suck moisture from it.
They can change colour to blend into their surroundings. This is a good defence adaptation that means they are difficult to see and can hide from predators. They can change colours to grey, red, orange and yellow to blend into desert surroundings.
They walk in a funny way but can run up to 60km/hr. They walk with their tail lifted and have jerky movements. This is also a defence adaptation that means it confuses predators when found in the open desert.
It also has a 'pretend' head on the back of its neck that is a defence mechanism to scare predators. When the lizard sees a predator it dips its real head so that the predator is looking at the 'pretend' head. This head is just made of soft tissue. This is another adaptation that has helped this species survive.
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