Does a turtle breathe through its shell?

Answer 1

Turtles come out of water for air because they can survive in and out of water. When the turtles are in the water they slow down their heart beat to survive longer in the water but still come out to breathe. When turtles come out of water they are normal andbreathe.Turtles are like us when were in water but then they slow down their heart beat to stay longer in the water and will come in about half an hour to come up and breathe.

Answer 2

It does not. A turtle has lungs and so breathes through its mouth. It inflates and deflates its lungs by flexing muscles at its leg openings (which alter the size of its internal cavity). These muscles are used instead of the diaphragm since the diaphragm was lost when the turtles ribs fused to form their shell.

Answer 3

Turtles, like all reptiles, have LUNGS! They have to

breathe air. They must come to the surface to breathe.

They can go anything from a few seconds to several

hours (when they sleep) to several weeks (when they

hibernate in winter) without extra air.

They also store air in their cloaca. They particularly

draw on this air during hibernation. So, how does this

work?

All tissues are more or less permeable to various

molecules. In the lungs, capillaries are as close to the

surface of the body as possible, they practically "touch"

the air. Exchange of O2 and CO2 easily takes place through

the skin. Gills work in the same way, just in water.

Intestinal tissue also has a lot of capillaries close to the

surface for the purpose of absorbing nutrients. However,

since the gas exchange is simple osmosis, nothing prevents

this (or any other tissue high in capillaries) from

also taking on O2. The rigid rib cage also places restrictions on breathing. Turtles have two special sets of respiratory muscles. One set pulls the body contents outward, toward the openings at the front and rear of the shell. This expands the body cavity and draws air into the lungs, which are located in the top part of the shell. The other pushes the viscera up against the lungs to expel the air. This system has the drawback that both inhalation and exhalation require energy--in most vertebrates, elastic energy can be recovered from the rib cage so that exhalation requires little exertion.

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.

Source: The Striaght Dope

Answer 4

Yes. They must hold their breath and come up to the surface to breath. But they can hold it for a long time.

Turtles have a 3 chamber heart, unlike humans who have 4. They have 2 atria and only 1 ventricle. This means that oxygenated blood from the lungs is mixing with deoxygenated blood coming from the body. It sounds counter productive but it is actually helpful. When a turtle is underwater it can shunt the blood from going to the lungs and the oxygenated blood is mixed with the deoxygenated blood in the ventricle of the heart. There is then oxygen distributed evenly throughout the blood and the turtle is using it slower because there is less of it but there is still some. If you were to hold your breath you would have would have blood with different oxygen levels circulating through your body, which would eventually lead to some blood having no oxygen. This completely deoxygenated blood would be circulating through your body and could cause damage to tissues.

Answer 5

Sea turtles breathe air. They have lungs, not gills. They hold their breath - which they're very good at - when they dive

Answer 6

Tortoise have lungs.

PS: Tortoises are also called land turtles.

Answer 7

they use there noses and they use water and air and i love todd