Can a turtle breathe with its butt?

Most of us have been subjected to forwarded e-mails. In general, I delete them unopened, but I opened one once that contained the little tidbit that turtles can breathe through their butts.

Soon after, my daughter and I were out with the friend of mine who had sent the e-mail in question, and she was playing with a turtle finger puppet that only sticks its head out when you insert a long-enough finger into the area under its tail. Said construction did not occur to me to be slightly obscene at the time of purchase.

"Careful," he warned. "That turtle might need to breathe." Then he relayed the information to my confused and incredulous four-year-old.

A hesitant search of the Internet revealed this fact: There is, in fact, a species of turtle with this incredible adaptation of its anatomy. Apparently dragonfly nymphs and sea cucumbers can do it too!

Although there are certain humans who seem to have the special talent to speak out of this part of their anatomy, only aquatic creatures that sometimes need to intake oxygen underwater without the use of lungs possess the ability to intake and/or expel air through their nether regions.

Yes, Virginia, some turtles do breathe with their butts.