Nature has a youthful sense of humor.

At first glance, that seems the only explanation why some turtles, including the Australian fitzroy turtle and the North American eastern painted turtle, breathe through their hole.
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Both can also breathe through the mouth.

When scientists put a certain amount of dye in the water near these turtles, a drawing was created both on the front and back of these turtles.

Technically, this posterior is not the anus, it is a cloaca, an opening through which the turtle excretes, urinates and lays its eggs.

Yet the question is: why is it?

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