Which animal can breathe through its butt?
The sea cucumber
The answer was The sea cucumber. Here's the why, the decoys, and the source trail.
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Sea cucumbers can breathe through their rear end by drawing water into their anus and extracting oxygen through a specialized pair of respiratory trees. This process is called anal respiration.
A good trivia question makes the wrong answers feel close. Here is the clean read on the set.
- The seahorse - a decoy; it may live near the same topic, but it does not answer this exact clue.
- The sea cucumber - correct answer.
- The dolphin - a decoy; it may live near the same topic, but it does not answer this exact clue.
- The platypus - a decoy; it may live near the same topic, but it does not answer this exact clue.
The sea cucumber is the one to remember. Sea cucumbers can breathe through their rear end by drawing water into their anus and extracting oxygen through a specialized pair of respiratory trees. When threatened, some sea cucumber species can also expel their internal organs through that same opening as a defense mechanism—they grow them back later.
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Sources: NOAA Ocean Service