Weird Aussie turtle is on endangered species list
Print Edition
Boasting a green, punk hairdo and the unusual ability to breathe through its backside, an Australian turtle has become famous overnight — but not only for its eccentricity.
Unfortunately, just as many of us are discovering the Mary River Turtle’s tantalizing traits, it has become the latest creature to join the “EDGE of Existence” list of endangered species compiled by the Zoological Society of London.
A native of Queensland, Australia, the turtle was one of 100 reptiles added to the catalog this week.
It lives only in the Mary River from which it took its name.
The inventory has no shortage of weird and wonderful creatures — a limbless lizard, the world’s largest sea turtle, a blind snake, and a chameleon named after Tarzan.
But the Mary River Turtle might just be the strangest of them all.
“The turtle is highly distinctive,” states a ZSL description of the species known to scientists as Elusor macrurus.
It can breathe underwater through specialized glands in butt organs known as cloaca — orifices through which the turtle excretes urine and waste, and lays eggs.
“This turtle is able to spend so much time underwater — up to three days — without coming up for air due to its strange ability to breathe through its bum,” Rikki Gumbs of Imperial College London said.
- About Us
- |
- Terms of Use
- |
-
RSS - |
- Privacy Policy
- |
- Contact Us
- |
- Shanghai Call Center: 962288
- |
- Tip-off hotline: 52920043
- 沪ICP证：沪ICP备05050403号-1
- |
- 互联网新闻信息服务许可证：31120180004
- |
- 网络视听许可证：0909346
- |
- 广播电视节目制作许可证：沪字第354号
- |
- 增值电信业务经营许可证：沪B2-20120012
Copyright © 1999- Shanghai Daily. All rights reserved.Preferably viewed with Internet Explorer 8 or newer browsers.
