Lake Eyre Dragon

C. maculosus can be identified by a white to pale grey dorsal surface with black blotches and a white ventral surface with a dark longitudinal dark streak. Black and brown spots are observed throughout its body. This cryptic coloration allows the species to blend into the salt surface it inhabits, and color variations are found depending on the specific population's environment. The adult male is about 11.5 cm (4.5 in) long (including tail), and the adult female is slightly shorter at 10.0 cm (3.9 in). C. maculosus possesses small, sunken eyes protected by serrated eyelids and eye linings. Its nostrils are connected to its nasal cavity by only a narrow downward slit. This nasal structure is adaptive for preventing nasal blockage from burrowing in sand. Other sand-burrowing American lizards have also developed similar nasal structures via convergent evolution, including species in the genera Uracentron, Holbrookia, and Phrynosoma.

C. maculosus is endemic to the three largest dry salt lakes of inner South Australia (Lake Eyre, Lake Callabonna, and Lake Torrens), with the densest population found in Lake Eyre. Three habitat characteristics characterize its distribution: a surface crust, a thick layer of dry sand or clay under the crust, and a constant source of humidity. This dragon lizard inhabits the edges of the lakes where it burrows in the damp sediments under the salt crust.

The main food source for C. maculosus is the harvest ant Melophorus. The nest-mounds of these ants provide an additional benefit to the dragon lizard as lookout points, basking sites, and sources of shade. C. maculosus is an opportunistic feeder, also feeding on other insects trapped on the salt surface.