Scale Backs

First off: Doesn't this look like the coolest head for a young Dragon? When I found the image I immediately thought of this creature being a dragonette or a hatchling.

Anyway...

SCALE BACK
aka Spike-Lizard

The scale back lizard is native to a planet that is featured in the 'Space Colony' storyline that I've been working on. The Scale-backs are adorned with spiked protrusions from their body in an effort to protect them from predators. Shown here, the Scale-back is young as the horns haven't grown to full size on its head and around its' neck. As they mature, the color variation will intensify and the will have longer and more numerous spikes along their body.

Once the scale-back reaches one full year of life, the coloring shifts from the browns and tans to take on dark streaks along the head, shoulders and back. This allows the creature to blend in with the scrub foliage of the plains where it hunts. As a hatchling, the creature remains near the burrow and must be camouflaged to the dusty brown dirt. As a grown predator, the horns and generally spiked skin creates a defensive perimeter that would make it difficult for any creature to seize it within their jaws.

Notice their small, black eyes. The scale-back is low-light hunter, preferring the hours of dusk and dawn to catch its prey; using motion and other cues to find them in the dim light.

Scale-backs are pack hunters, mimicking the actions of wolves or dingos with an alpha female as the leader of their group. Females go into their cycle twice each year and can produce a clutch of up to eight eggs per rotation with hatching following only ten weeks from conception. Other females will often brood in the same territory and within the same general vicinity as the alpha female, maintaining a vigil over their burrows during the day and trading out with the males off and on to find food.
On the colony planet, the Scale-backs are about the size of an average German Shepherd; between two and a half and three feet at the shoulder. They have a similar life-span and are strict carnivores.