Do turtles breath out of their bottoms?

Answer 1

It isn't called breathing but they can absorb oxygen through the mucus membranes of their rectum. It is possible for the turtles to sustain an oxygen supply for an extended period of time through this process.

Answer 2

Turtles have extraordinary anaerobic capacity--they have survived up to 33 hours in a pure nitrogen atmosphere. (Most reptiles have a high anaerobic capacity compared to mammals, but even they can't survive much more than 30 minutes without oxygen.) Although basically air-breathing, many aquatic species have developed ways to pick up oxygen even when submerged. Of these the most remarkable, which some turtles share with dragonfly nymphs, sea cucumbers, and certain televangelists, is the ability to breathe through one's butt. You've heard the expression 'Blow it out your after regions?' It's no mere figure of speech. Many species have a pair of sacs (bursae) opening off the cloaca (combined digestive and urogenital chamber). These are heavily vascularized to facilitate the uptake of oxygen. The champion in this regard seems to be the recently discovered (1973) Fitzroy River turtle Rheodytes leukops ('white-eyed stream-diver'), which is confined to its namesake river in Queensland, Australia. It lives in shallow rapids where the water is highly oxygenated. One can detect the keen sense of discovery in the account by the scientists who found it, John Legler and John Cann: 'One of our vivid early impressions of Rheodytes was that adults of both sexes swam with a widely gaping cloacal orifice (up to 30mm in diameter). The orifice remains open when individuals are out of the water. We first became aware of the large cloacal bursae when a female was examined in bright sunlight; the carapace transmitted enough light to illuminate the coelomic cavity and produce a spectacular view internally for at least 100mm, via the cloaca, revealing a large sac lined with vascular, villose mucosa. . . . Water is pumped in and out of the bursae of captives and experimental animals at rates of 15 to 60 times per minute' (Legler and Cann 1980). Only dedicated herpetologists could characterize the vista up a turtle's gaping bunghole as a 'spectacular view.' But you can understand their enthusiasm--since the turtle's shell is only 260 millimeters long, a 100-millimeter-long bursa is relatively enormous. Up to 68 percent of the turtle's oxygen uptake is accomplished through the cloacal bursae, so it rarely needs to come to the surface to bask or breathe.

Answer 3

Yes and no. All Turtles, as do all vertebrate returnees to the water, breath air with their lungs. But some have in fact were built to extract additional oxygen through a pair of chambers at their ear end.

Yes they do.

Answer 4

Yes. Although turtles breathe normally, they have a pair of sacs in their butt that are capable of taking in water, extracting oxygen from it, and then expelling it. They can get up to 68% of their oxygen this way.

This occurs in only a very few species of turtles. Most turtles do not do this.

Answer 5

Answer 1

There are a very few species of turtles that have a large cloacal bursae that is highly vascular and capable of oxygen-carbon dioxide exchange. Please refer to the related links rebuttal at the bottom of the article on The Straight Dope.

Answer 2

Yes, they can absorb oxygen through the mucus membranes of their rectum.

Answer 3

Turtles can breathe through their butts.They can suck water into their cloaca, the single hole through which they pass faeces urine and sexual fluids, and into two pockets that come off the chamber. These pockets are lined with veins, and the turtles can absorb oxygen from the water into their blood. The Fitzroy River turtle from Australia seems to be the champion of butt breathing. It can pump water in and out of its butt up to 60 times a minute, and gets almost 70 per cent of its oxygen in this way.

Answer 4

yes they do

Answer 6

A very few species of turtles have cloacal bursae that are rich in blood vessels and can undergo oxygen exchange. The vast majority of turtles do not have cloacal bursae, or if they do, they cannot use them for gas exchange.

Please refer to the end of the related link I am adding.

Answer 7

Turtles have nostrils in their heads and lungs inside their shells. They breathe like any other reptile or mammal, inflating their lungs and exhaling through their nostrils.

Answer 8

yes