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Concern for Irwin's bum-breathing turtle
Jan. 15th, 2019 02:05 pmOk, I haven't posted in quite a while (laziness? busy with Spoonflower? Ehouse distracting me with needed repairs? Just plain being old and tired? Procrastination RULES.)
So, when I am tired, I tend to play freebie games on line, or I randomly google. When I came across mention of Irwin's turtle I just wanted to share it. (The article is from 2009).
https://www.news.com.au/national/concern-for-irwins-bum-breathing-turtle/news-story/1d845c64bb0492fe88e0b056939206da
Steve Irwin and his father caught an unusual turtle in 1990. Steve sent photos of it and had it identified as a previously unregistered to science species (I dislike saying 'new' or 'unknown' because hey, it didn't evolve the moment it was photographed, and people lived there long enough they probably had seen the turtle and just didn't bother calling it anything except 'turtle'. I mean, if you see a turtle that's usually all the ID you need.)
So, one of the interesting things about this turtle is that it can breathe underwater by sucking water up its cloaca (the combined digestive/reproductive tract found in birds/reptiles/etc.). It has an internal gill structure that extracts oxygen from the water.
Wow, talk about multipurpose.
So, when I am tired, I tend to play freebie games on line, or I randomly google. When I came across mention of Irwin's turtle I just wanted to share it. (The article is from 2009).
https://www.news.com.au/national/concern-for-irwins-bum-breathing-turtle/news-story/1d845c64bb0492fe88e0b056939206da
Steve Irwin and his father caught an unusual turtle in 1990. Steve sent photos of it and had it identified as a previously unregistered to science species (I dislike saying 'new' or 'unknown' because hey, it didn't evolve the moment it was photographed, and people lived there long enough they probably had seen the turtle and just didn't bother calling it anything except 'turtle'. I mean, if you see a turtle that's usually all the ID you need.)
So, one of the interesting things about this turtle is that it can breathe underwater by sucking water up its cloaca (the combined digestive/reproductive tract found in birds/reptiles/etc.). It has an internal gill structure that extracts oxygen from the water.
Wow, talk about multipurpose.
