User:Bubblelord500/sandbox

Certain turtles can not only respirate with their mouths, but can also breath through their butts. Before you disregard this as vandalism, please note that they do not do so through an anus, but through a similar opening called the cloaca, through which the turtles also disperse solid and liquid waste as well as lay eggs.

Still this begs the question- If turtles can breath through their mouths, why not simply do so? Well, their is, after all, a surprising evolutionary advantage to this strange form of respiration.

The turtles' rigid shell allows it to be nearly impenetrable by bite, keeping turtles safe from predators, but at the same time made it necessary to rearrange their bodily functions. The fact that it cannot bend means that, unlike many animals, they cannot have expanding and contracting lungs to breath. So, they are equipped with muscles to pull it's body towards the opening of the shell in order to inhale, and muscles that pull it away to exhale. This all sounds well and good on paper, or rather, on screen, but it is rather costly of oxygen and results in a nasty buildup of lactic acid in the turtles' body. For a hibernating turtle, this is not a good thing. (Acid buildup is never a good thing)

If you know anything about the biology, you know that anaerobic exercise, like this form of breathing, results in a buildup of lactic acid in the body. This can only be released with easy, aerobic exercise to flush out the acid. While a turtle is hibernating, it is not doing this. Naturally, it is sleeping and not moving. So, their is nothing to flush out any build up of lactic acid in it's small body.

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