This question did not arise by chance. All turtles, wherever they live – on land or in water – breathe lungs. Land tortoises with breathing do not have any problems, but how does the water tortoise breathe lungs underwater? It turns out that they do not breathe under the water as fish do, taking oxygen from the water through the gills.
Turtles do it all differently. All turtles: both freshwater and marine – from time to time creep onto the land to bask in the sun and stock up on oxygen.
The ribs of the turtles are tightly attached to the shell, so they can not take air into the lungs, like a man, pushing the ribs apart. For breath, turtles have two rows of special muscles on their stomachs. One group of muscles draws away other organs from the lungs, so that they do not interfere with breathing, the other returns them to the place while displacing the air.
It is enough for a turtle to take one breath, and oxygen passes through the lungs so much that it can be for several hours under water without the need for additional breathing. Even more striking is the fact that some turtles may be under water for several days without appearing on land and on the surface of the water to draw air. This is possible because turtles use very little oxygen, when they lie on the bottom without moving. In addition, in the structure of some turtles there is another secret.
At them in a throat or in an anus there are special linings through which the processed substances leave an organism. Through this same hole with a gasket, oxygen enters the body from the water, like fish through gills. These turtles breathe a small amount of oxygen into the lungs and are forced to crawl more often to the land, since the oxygen that they get from the water is still not enough.
There are turtles and soft shells that breathe in the lungs just like a human being does. They generally can not creep ashore, because they have such a long neck that, lying on the bottom of the river, they can safely stick their heads above the water and breathe air.
