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Name : Mary River turtle ( Elusor macrurus )
Where it know : Mary /Moonaboola River , Queensland , Australia
The mary river turtle can spend days underwater with the help of a specialised organ inside its butt.
What it eats : Mostly aquatic plants , but sometimes cum , fruits and insect larvae
Why it ’s awful : This turtleneck has a distinctive , punk - similar appearance , thanks to green alga originate from its head and body that helps it hide from predator in its aquatic home . It also has two tenacious , fleshy jut called barbels adhere out from its chin that serve it smell its surround .
💁 ♂ ️Introducing the Mary River Turtle 🐢 This species of Australian turtle is unique for two reasons . Firstly , it breathes through its bottom ! 💨 And second , it has what resemble a fleeceable mohawk on its principal ! This is because the turtle grows strands of algae on its body.pic.twitter.com/NYcahDCluG
In addition to its strange appearance , the Mary River turtle also has a refined trick up its sleeve — or rather , its behind .
" It can spend days at a time submerge , managing to ' breathe ' underwater — a exploit achieved by very few reptilian — through specialised harmonium inside its sewer [ an orifice discover mostly in non - mammalian vertebrates for intestinal , urinary and genital tracts],“Rikki Gumbs , a researcher at theEDGE of Existence program , a preservation initiative focusing on unique and unnoted species , told Live Science in an email .
While some fresh water turtles apply their skin for aquatic respiration , using cloacal glands allows them to be submerged for longer . In the case of the Mary River turtle , this can be for up to 72 hours .
refer : Can turn turtle really breathe through their butt ?
The glands — call cloacal bursae — are hatch with papillae , which are small structures lining the wall of the bursae . Oxygen in the weewee disseminate across the papillae and into the turtle ’s blood stream .
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The Mary River polo-neck is also unique : No other turtle is closely related to to it . " It is the only surviving specie in its genus , " Gumbs say . " It is thought the ancestors of the Mary River turtleneck diverged from all other living turtle lineages more than 18 million years ago — several million years before our root and those of the orangutan part ways . "
Despite being prolific in thepet trade for X in the 1960s and seventies , its distribution in the state of nature was a mystery to scientists until they were finally found in the wild and officially described as a specie in 1994 .
