LOCATION: Although few animals and plants are adapted to the extremely dry desert life, the desert is a vital biome. The desert is important because it covers about a fifth of the earth's surface! There are both hot and cold deserts. Antarctica is the largest desert in the world, while the Sahara in Africa is the largest of the hot deserts. There are also deserts close to Santa Barbara, such as the Mojave the Colorado Desert which encompass parts of Southern California. In North America, there are four major hot, dry deserts, including the Mojave and the Great Basin. Outside the U.S. hot, dry deserts are found in the Southern Asian realm, South and Central America, Ethiopia and Australia.
Another type of desert is the coastal desert, for example, the Atacama Desert in Chile of South America. And then there are cold deserts. That sounds pretty silly! If deserts are supposed to be hot, how can there possibly be a cold desert? Well these deserts are in places like Antarctica and Greenland where vegetation is sparce, just like the more commonly known hot, dry deserts.
WEATHER: Weather is not the same in all deserts. The seasons in hot and dry deserts are usually very hot during the summer and warm during the rest of the year. During winter these deserts get little rainfall. Rain is often light, or in short concentrated bursts. Most of the time evaporation rates are faster than rainfall rates. Sometimes the rain evaporates before even hitting the ground. This is the reason for the dry characteristic of this type of desert. Coastal deserts are in moderately cool to warm areas. Coastal deserts usually have cool winters followed by fairly long, warm summers. The temperature in the winters is generally 41°F (5°C) or below. In the summer the weather heats up to between 55° and 75°F (12 and 24°C). Average rainfall is usually 3 - 5 inches (8 - 13 cm). The Atacama is the Earth's driest desert. In the Atacama 1 millimeter or more of rain falls every 5-20 years. Cold deserts have short, moist and moderately warm summers, and long cold winters like one could expect in Antarctica. The winter temperature ranges from -5°F to -110°F (-20.5 to -79°C), and in the summer it can be a nice, balmy, 32°F (0°C). The coldest day recorded in Antarctica was -113°F (-80.5°C)!
PLANTS: Deserts plants have many adaptations to survive in such a dry environment. They are good at storing and finding water. Some plants have seeds that can stay dormant in the sand for a long time, until there is enough rain for them to grow. In hot deserts, you'll often find Cacti. Cacti are great at storing water. With their waxy coating, water can't escape and their spines protect them from being desert dinner. Their roots are shallow, and widely spread so that any rain can be absorbed immediately! Some other plants you might find in the hot desert are creosote bush, sagebrush, and ocotillo. Coastal deserts house a variety of plants. These plants must adapt to minimal rainfall by having extensive root systems that come up to the surface to absorb any possible rainfall, and go far down to absorb any water saturated in the ground. These plants also have very thick leaves that can absorb and store water whenever it is available. The plants that live in coastal deserts include salt bush, rice grass, black sage and chrysothamnus. Plants can even live in cold deserts, but you won't find as many here as in other types of deserts. Plants in cold deserts include algae, grasses, and plants with spiny thin leaves. Usually these plants grow only in the summer.
ANIMALS: Deserts are a very important biome. No, not because of all the sand! Mostly because of all the plants and animals that call the desert "home". Some animals that live in the hot desert are cold-blooded, like snakes, insects, and lizards. Mammals that live in the desert are usually small, such as the kangaroo rat and kit fox. Sometimes it's hard to survive in the desert. Some mice build their home out of fallen cactus spines to protect themselves from predators like coyotes and hawks. In the Eritrean coastal desert in Djibouti, Africa, animals like gazelles, skinks, geckos and dikdiks roam the desert. Fewer animals live in the cold desert. In Antarctica, most of the animals live near the ocean shore. Because of their ice home, seals, penguins, and other birds rely on fish, squid and other sea creatures for their food.
PEOPLE AND THE DESERT: People have a variety of uses for deserts. The desert is popular for tourism and recreation. Often people visit to see the beautiful sand colors and rock formations. Many people enjoy visiting the desert because it is a quiet place to get away from the business and noise of cities and spend time in the open land. The desert offers many types of recreation, for example, rock climbing, hiking and dirt biking. Mining, grazing, road building, and utility projects take place in the desert. Because of desert sensitivity, it is important that desert uses be managed properly to protect the wildlife and habitat.
Information from this website- http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/desert.html
Another type of desert is the coastal desert, for example, the Atacama Desert in Chile of South America. And then there are cold deserts. That sounds pretty silly! If deserts are supposed to be hot, how can there possibly be a cold desert? Well these deserts are in places like Antarctica and Greenland where vegetation is sparce, just like the more commonly known hot, dry deserts.
WEATHER: Weather is not the same in all deserts. The seasons in hot and dry deserts are usually very hot during the summer and warm during the rest of the year. During winter these deserts get little rainfall. Rain is often light, or in short concentrated bursts. Most of the time evaporation rates are faster than rainfall rates. Sometimes the rain evaporates before even hitting the ground. This is the reason for the dry characteristic of this type of desert. Coastal deserts are in moderately cool to warm areas. Coastal deserts usually have cool winters followed by fairly long, warm summers. The temperature in the winters is generally 41°F (5°C) or below. In the summer the weather heats up to between 55° and 75°F (12 and 24°C). Average rainfall is usually 3 - 5 inches (8 - 13 cm). The Atacama is the Earth's driest desert. In the Atacama 1 millimeter or more of rain falls every 5-20 years. Cold deserts have short, moist and moderately warm summers, and long cold winters like one could expect in Antarctica. The winter temperature ranges from -5°F to -110°F (-20.5 to -79°C), and in the summer it can be a nice, balmy, 32°F (0°C). The coldest day recorded in Antarctica was -113°F (-80.5°C)!
PLANTS: Deserts plants have many adaptations to survive in such a dry environment. They are good at storing and finding water. Some plants have seeds that can stay dormant in the sand for a long time, until there is enough rain for them to grow. In hot deserts, you'll often find Cacti. Cacti are great at storing water. With their waxy coating, water can't escape and their spines protect them from being desert dinner. Their roots are shallow, and widely spread so that any rain can be absorbed immediately! Some other plants you might find in the hot desert are creosote bush, sagebrush, and ocotillo. Coastal deserts house a variety of plants. These plants must adapt to minimal rainfall by having extensive root systems that come up to the surface to absorb any possible rainfall, and go far down to absorb any water saturated in the ground. These plants also have very thick leaves that can absorb and store water whenever it is available. The plants that live in coastal deserts include salt bush, rice grass, black sage and chrysothamnus. Plants can even live in cold deserts, but you won't find as many here as in other types of deserts. Plants in cold deserts include algae, grasses, and plants with spiny thin leaves. Usually these plants grow only in the summer.
ANIMALS: Deserts are a very important biome. No, not because of all the sand! Mostly because of all the plants and animals that call the desert "home". Some animals that live in the hot desert are cold-blooded, like snakes, insects, and lizards. Mammals that live in the desert are usually small, such as the kangaroo rat and kit fox. Sometimes it's hard to survive in the desert. Some mice build their home out of fallen cactus spines to protect themselves from predators like coyotes and hawks. In the Eritrean coastal desert in Djibouti, Africa, animals like gazelles, skinks, geckos and dikdiks roam the desert. Fewer animals live in the cold desert. In Antarctica, most of the animals live near the ocean shore. Because of their ice home, seals, penguins, and other birds rely on fish, squid and other sea creatures for their food.
PEOPLE AND THE DESERT: People have a variety of uses for deserts. The desert is popular for tourism and recreation. Often people visit to see the beautiful sand colors and rock formations. Many people enjoy visiting the desert because it is a quiet place to get away from the business and noise of cities and spend time in the open land. The desert offers many types of recreation, for example, rock climbing, hiking and dirt biking. Mining, grazing, road building, and utility projects take place in the desert. Because of desert sensitivity, it is important that desert uses be managed properly to protect the wildlife and habitat.
Information from this website- http://kids.nceas.ucsb.edu/biomes/desert.html
Deserts in the Southwestern United States are areas of extreme heat and dryness, just as most of us envision them. More scientifically, deserts, also called arid regions, characteristically receive less than 10 inches of precipitation a year. In some deserts, the amount of evaporation is greater than the amount of rainfall. Semiarid regions average 10 to 20 inches of annual precipitation. Typically, desert moisture occurs in brief intervals and is unpredictable from year to year. About one-third of the earth's land mass is arid to semiarid (either desert or semidesert).
Evaporation is also an important factor contributing to aridity. In some deserts, the amount of water evaporating, exceeds the amount of rainfall. Rising air cools and can hold less moisture, producing clouds and precipitation; falling air warms, absorbing moisture. Areas with few clouds, bodies of water and little vegetation absorb most of the sun's radiation, thus heating the air at the soil surface. More humid areas deflect heat in clouds, water and vegetation, remaining cooler. High wind in open country also contributes to evaporation.
Locations of deserts have changed throughout geologic time as the result of continental drift and the uplifting of mountain ranges. Modern desert regions are centered in the horse latitudes, typically straddling the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, between 15 and 30 degrees north and south of the equator. Some deserts, such as the Kalahari in central Africa, are geologically ancient. The Sahara Desert in northern Africa is 65 million years old, while the Sonoran Desert of North America reached its northern limits only within the last 10,000 years.
Geomorphology of the DesertsThree of the four major deserts of North America are contained within a geological region called the Basin and Range Province, lying between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Sierra Nevadas to the west. While the distinctiveness of each desert is based on the types of plant life found there (determined both by evolutionary history and climates), the geological structures of these three deserts are rather similar.
Captain John C. Fremont coined the term Great Basin. Actually, the region is a series of many basins, interrupted with mountain ranges produced by tilted and uplifted strata. Each range typically has a steep slope on one side and a gentle slope on the other. The ranges are roughly parallel. The basins or playas have no drainage. During wet cycles they become shallow playa lakes which may last from a few months, a few years or for longer periods.
During the Pleistocene interglacial, much of the Great Basin was flooded producing Lake Lahotan. The lake evaporated during the last 12 ,000 years, leaving only a few salty lakes between the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains.
Undrained basins are also characteristic of the Mojave and Chihuahuan deserts. But the Sonoran Desert usually has hydraulic systems forming streams draining into the Gulf of California or the Pacific. There are also a few playas in the Sonoran Desert. One of these, called the Salton Sea, was filled by Colorado River flood waters in 1906 and remains full.
Alluvial fans are common in the Mojave Desert and the California portions of the Sonoran Desert. These are formed through geologic time where an arroyo or wash drains a mountain, depositing the detritus in a semicircle at the canyon's mouth.
In the Sonoran Desert, the linear ranges, usually formed by volcanic uplift, are often surrounded by a skirt of detritus -- boulders, rocks, gravel, sand, soil -- that has eroded from the mountain over time. Much of this has been washed down during torrential summer downpours. In the Southwest these detritus skirts or pediments are frequently called bajadas. The substrate is coarser, with larger rocks on the upper bajada and finer at the lower elevation.
Deep arroyos may cut through the bajadas. Special plants such as the Desert Ironwood and Canyon Bursage may grow along the arroyos, giving them the appearance of dry creeks.
The areas between the desert ranges have been filled with water-washed alluvium. This alluvium, or fine soil, produces the extensive flat spaces one usually associates with deserts. The water table may be high on the flatlands, and the drainage is often slow. Poorly drained patches and larger playas become alkaline through accumulation of soluble chemicals. Special types of plants called halophytes (salt lovers) can grow here.
Desert streams and rivers are formed where there are grasslands, semiarid woodlands and forested uplands called watersheds. Like giant geological sponges, the upland watersheds collect and hold water throughout the year, releasing it slowly into the desert below. These desert streams with their riparian woodlands of cottonwoods, willows and other hydrophilic (water loving) plants were centers for abundant wildlife, as well as native peoples. However, abuse to the watersheds through overgrazing, timber cutting, mining and other modern activities has dried up many desert rivers. Also, much of the water table, once just below the desert floor, has been pumped lower and lower, and may now be hundreds of feet below the surface.
Information from this Website- http://www.desertusa.com/desert.html
Evaporation is also an important factor contributing to aridity. In some deserts, the amount of water evaporating, exceeds the amount of rainfall. Rising air cools and can hold less moisture, producing clouds and precipitation; falling air warms, absorbing moisture. Areas with few clouds, bodies of water and little vegetation absorb most of the sun's radiation, thus heating the air at the soil surface. More humid areas deflect heat in clouds, water and vegetation, remaining cooler. High wind in open country also contributes to evaporation.
Locations of deserts have changed throughout geologic time as the result of continental drift and the uplifting of mountain ranges. Modern desert regions are centered in the horse latitudes, typically straddling the Tropic of Cancer and the Tropic of Capricorn, between 15 and 30 degrees north and south of the equator. Some deserts, such as the Kalahari in central Africa, are geologically ancient. The Sahara Desert in northern Africa is 65 million years old, while the Sonoran Desert of North America reached its northern limits only within the last 10,000 years.
Geomorphology of the DesertsThree of the four major deserts of North America are contained within a geological region called the Basin and Range Province, lying between the Rocky Mountains to the east and the Sierra Nevadas to the west. While the distinctiveness of each desert is based on the types of plant life found there (determined both by evolutionary history and climates), the geological structures of these three deserts are rather similar.
Captain John C. Fremont coined the term Great Basin. Actually, the region is a series of many basins, interrupted with mountain ranges produced by tilted and uplifted strata. Each range typically has a steep slope on one side and a gentle slope on the other. The ranges are roughly parallel. The basins or playas have no drainage. During wet cycles they become shallow playa lakes which may last from a few months, a few years or for longer periods.
During the Pleistocene interglacial, much of the Great Basin was flooded producing Lake Lahotan. The lake evaporated during the last 12 ,000 years, leaving only a few salty lakes between the Sierra Nevadas and the Rocky Mountains.
Undrained basins are also characteristic of the Mojave and Chihuahuan deserts. But the Sonoran Desert usually has hydraulic systems forming streams draining into the Gulf of California or the Pacific. There are also a few playas in the Sonoran Desert. One of these, called the Salton Sea, was filled by Colorado River flood waters in 1906 and remains full.
Alluvial fans are common in the Mojave Desert and the California portions of the Sonoran Desert. These are formed through geologic time where an arroyo or wash drains a mountain, depositing the detritus in a semicircle at the canyon's mouth.
In the Sonoran Desert, the linear ranges, usually formed by volcanic uplift, are often surrounded by a skirt of detritus -- boulders, rocks, gravel, sand, soil -- that has eroded from the mountain over time. Much of this has been washed down during torrential summer downpours. In the Southwest these detritus skirts or pediments are frequently called bajadas. The substrate is coarser, with larger rocks on the upper bajada and finer at the lower elevation.
Deep arroyos may cut through the bajadas. Special plants such as the Desert Ironwood and Canyon Bursage may grow along the arroyos, giving them the appearance of dry creeks.
The areas between the desert ranges have been filled with water-washed alluvium. This alluvium, or fine soil, produces the extensive flat spaces one usually associates with deserts. The water table may be high on the flatlands, and the drainage is often slow. Poorly drained patches and larger playas become alkaline through accumulation of soluble chemicals. Special types of plants called halophytes (salt lovers) can grow here.
Desert streams and rivers are formed where there are grasslands, semiarid woodlands and forested uplands called watersheds. Like giant geological sponges, the upland watersheds collect and hold water throughout the year, releasing it slowly into the desert below. These desert streams with their riparian woodlands of cottonwoods, willows and other hydrophilic (water loving) plants were centers for abundant wildlife, as well as native peoples. However, abuse to the watersheds through overgrazing, timber cutting, mining and other modern activities has dried up many desert rivers. Also, much of the water table, once just below the desert floor, has been pumped lower and lower, and may now be hundreds of feet below the surface.
Information from this Website- http://www.desertusa.com/desert.html
Far from being barren wastelands, deserts are biologically rich habitats with a vast array of animals and plants that have adapted to the harsh conditions there. Some deserts are among the planet's last remaining areas of total wilderness. Yet more than one billion people, one-sixth of the Earth's population, actually live in desert regions.
Deserts cover more than one fifth of the Earth's land, and they are found on every continent. A place that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year is considered a desert. Deserts are part of a wider classification of regions called "drylands." These areas exist under a moisture deficit, which means they can frequently lose more moisture through evaporation than they receive from annual precipitation.
And despite the common conceptions of deserts as dry and hot, there are cold deserts as well. The largest hot desert in the world, northern Africa's Sahara, reaches temperatures of up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) during the day. But some deserts are always cold, like the Gobi desert in Asia and the desert on the continent of Antarctica. Others are mountainous. Only about 10 percent of deserts are covered by sand dunes. The driest deserts get less than half an inch (one centimeter) of precipitation each year, and that is from condensed fog not rain.
Desert animals have adapted ways to help them keep cool and use less water. Camels, for example, can go for days without food and water. Many desert animals are nocturnal, coming out only when the brutal sun has descended to hunt. Some animals, like the desert tortoise in the southwestern United States, spend much of their time underground. Most desert birds are nomadic, crisscrossing the skies in search of food. Because of their very special adaptations, desert animals are extremely vulnerable to introduced predators and changes to their habitat.
Desert plants may have to go without fresh water for years at a time. Some plants have adapted to the arid climate by growing long roots that tap water from deep underground. Other plants, such as cacti, have special means of storing and conserving water. Many desert plants can live to be hundreds of years old.
Some of the world's semi-arid regions are turning into desert at an alarming rate. This process, known as "desertification," is not caused by drought, but usually arises from the demands of human populations that settle on the semi-arid lands to grow crops and graze animals. The pounding of the soil by the hooves of livestock may degrade the soil and encourage erosion by wind and water.
Global warming also threatens to change the ecology of desert. Higher temperatures may produce an increasing number of wildfires that alter desert landscapes by eliminating slow-growing trees and shrubs and replacing them with fast-growing grasses.
Information from this Website-
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/desert-profile/
Deserts cover more than one fifth of the Earth's land, and they are found on every continent. A place that receives less than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain per year is considered a desert. Deserts are part of a wider classification of regions called "drylands." These areas exist under a moisture deficit, which means they can frequently lose more moisture through evaporation than they receive from annual precipitation.
And despite the common conceptions of deserts as dry and hot, there are cold deserts as well. The largest hot desert in the world, northern Africa's Sahara, reaches temperatures of up to 122 degrees Fahrenheit (50 degrees Celsius) during the day. But some deserts are always cold, like the Gobi desert in Asia and the desert on the continent of Antarctica. Others are mountainous. Only about 10 percent of deserts are covered by sand dunes. The driest deserts get less than half an inch (one centimeter) of precipitation each year, and that is from condensed fog not rain.
Desert animals have adapted ways to help them keep cool and use less water. Camels, for example, can go for days without food and water. Many desert animals are nocturnal, coming out only when the brutal sun has descended to hunt. Some animals, like the desert tortoise in the southwestern United States, spend much of their time underground. Most desert birds are nomadic, crisscrossing the skies in search of food. Because of their very special adaptations, desert animals are extremely vulnerable to introduced predators and changes to their habitat.
Desert plants may have to go without fresh water for years at a time. Some plants have adapted to the arid climate by growing long roots that tap water from deep underground. Other plants, such as cacti, have special means of storing and conserving water. Many desert plants can live to be hundreds of years old.
Some of the world's semi-arid regions are turning into desert at an alarming rate. This process, known as "desertification," is not caused by drought, but usually arises from the demands of human populations that settle on the semi-arid lands to grow crops and graze animals. The pounding of the soil by the hooves of livestock may degrade the soil and encourage erosion by wind and water.
Global warming also threatens to change the ecology of desert. Higher temperatures may produce an increasing number of wildfires that alter desert landscapes by eliminating slow-growing trees and shrubs and replacing them with fast-growing grasses.
Information from this Website-
http://environment.nationalgeographic.com/environment/habitats/desert-profile/
TreesMost tree growth in the Australian desert -- up to two-thirds -- takes place under the soil. Instead of growing upward, desert trees focus their growth into deep, water-seeking root systems. The wattles, also known as acacias, are one of the most common trees native to Australian deserts. These hardy trees grow in a range of shapes and sizes, but all display modified stem structures, or phyllodes, instead of leaves; they produce hard-coated seed pods that require scarification to germinate. Native species include the dead finish (Acacia tetragonophylla), which grows to 16 feet tall and has medicinally valuable bark and the Wallangarra wattle (A. adunca), which grows to 20 feet tall and produces bright yellow flowers. Other common desert trees include gums, or eucalyptus, trees. Many gums display adaptations such as modified trunks that allow regrowth after a severe drought or waxy, powdery bark that deflects heat.
ShrubsAustralian desert shrubs display modifications that allow them to thrive under arid conditions. Wattles also grow as shrubs, such as the Western coastal wattle (A. cyclops) and the prickly Moses (A. verticullata). These acacias produce seeds with bright red stalks attached, which attract birds that ingest the seeds and aid in their dispersal. Other shrub species include the old man or Australian saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata), a woody perennial that spreads to 9 feet tall and 3 feet wide. The shrub's gray-blue foliage deflects heat, and its red berries attract wildlife.
Other PlantsSeveral other species of plants thrive in Australia's deserts. Sturt's desert pea (Swainsona formosa), the emblem of southern Australia, grows as a creeping vine with pinnate, hairy, gray-green foliage. It produces clusters of 3-inch flowers surrounding glossy, black seeds that, like wattle seeds, require scarification to germinate. The native fuchsia (Eremophila latrobei) blooms with red, tubular flowers and can regrow from dead-looking branches once a drought breaks. Cloak ferns (Chielanthes spp.) are known as "resurrection plants" as they die during periods of drought but "resurrect" after a rainfall.
MammalsDue to the harsh conditions in Australian deserts, most indigenous mammal species are small and subsist on little moisture. The spinifex hopping mouse (Notomys alexis) gets all the moisture it needs from its diet of shoots, roots and insects. This tiny rodent lives in warrens under the desert sand. The white-striped mastiff bat (Talarida australis) is named for the large white stripe that crosses under its wings. This insect-eater usually nests in hollow trees. One of the more unusual desert mammals is the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). This toothless, spiny create digs for termites and ants with its huge claws. One of the three egg-laying mammal species, this echidna lays soft-shelled eggs directly into its pouch, where they hatch after only 10 days.
Birds and ReptilesAustralia's deserts are home to a variety of birds, including the mulga parrot (Psephotus varius), a small, colorful bird that forages for seeds on the ground. The singing honeyeater (Lichenostomus virescens) lives on nectar and flying insects. The Australian kestrel (Falco cenchroides) hunts for its prey, which includes lizards, insects and small mammals, by hovering and then swooping down. The deserts provide habitat for many reptiles, such as the pygmy monitor lizard (Varanus eremius), a small red lizard that preys on other lizards. The thorny devil (Moloch horridus) is named for the spined yellow and brown scales that protrude from every part of its body.
Information from this Website- http://traveltips.usatoday.com/plants-animals-australian-desert-63586.html
ShrubsAustralian desert shrubs display modifications that allow them to thrive under arid conditions. Wattles also grow as shrubs, such as the Western coastal wattle (A. cyclops) and the prickly Moses (A. verticullata). These acacias produce seeds with bright red stalks attached, which attract birds that ingest the seeds and aid in their dispersal. Other shrub species include the old man or Australian saltbush (Atriplex semibaccata), a woody perennial that spreads to 9 feet tall and 3 feet wide. The shrub's gray-blue foliage deflects heat, and its red berries attract wildlife.
Other PlantsSeveral other species of plants thrive in Australia's deserts. Sturt's desert pea (Swainsona formosa), the emblem of southern Australia, grows as a creeping vine with pinnate, hairy, gray-green foliage. It produces clusters of 3-inch flowers surrounding glossy, black seeds that, like wattle seeds, require scarification to germinate. The native fuchsia (Eremophila latrobei) blooms with red, tubular flowers and can regrow from dead-looking branches once a drought breaks. Cloak ferns (Chielanthes spp.) are known as "resurrection plants" as they die during periods of drought but "resurrect" after a rainfall.
MammalsDue to the harsh conditions in Australian deserts, most indigenous mammal species are small and subsist on little moisture. The spinifex hopping mouse (Notomys alexis) gets all the moisture it needs from its diet of shoots, roots and insects. This tiny rodent lives in warrens under the desert sand. The white-striped mastiff bat (Talarida australis) is named for the large white stripe that crosses under its wings. This insect-eater usually nests in hollow trees. One of the more unusual desert mammals is the short-beaked echidna (Tachyglossus aculeatus). This toothless, spiny create digs for termites and ants with its huge claws. One of the three egg-laying mammal species, this echidna lays soft-shelled eggs directly into its pouch, where they hatch after only 10 days.
Birds and ReptilesAustralia's deserts are home to a variety of birds, including the mulga parrot (Psephotus varius), a small, colorful bird that forages for seeds on the ground. The singing honeyeater (Lichenostomus virescens) lives on nectar and flying insects. The Australian kestrel (Falco cenchroides) hunts for its prey, which includes lizards, insects and small mammals, by hovering and then swooping down. The deserts provide habitat for many reptiles, such as the pygmy monitor lizard (Varanus eremius), a small red lizard that preys on other lizards. The thorny devil (Moloch horridus) is named for the spined yellow and brown scales that protrude from every part of its body.
Information from this Website- http://traveltips.usatoday.com/plants-animals-australian-desert-63586.html