Is there such thing as a completely underwater turtle?

Question

I know there is a completely underwater frog (African clawed and African dwarf frog) but what about a turtle? Freshwater that is!!

Thanks for taking the time to read this.

Answer 1

NO turtles MUST surfest at times for air it may seem like they never come up but they do.

Answer 2

cool question but no ... there are turtles that spend much of there life underwater and don't sun them self's like (eg.snapping turtles or mattamattas ) but even they come out to lay there eggs every year.

Answer 3

No.  Turtles do not have a way of gleaning oxygen from the water, like fish do with their gills.  I'm not sure if the frog in question has gills (I doubt it) or uses some kind of membrane (kind of like "straining" the oxygen from the water), etc. but it has a method of seperating the oxygen from the hydrogen in H2O.

Turtles, like sea turtles, have very large lungs, relative to their oxygen needs.  They can stay underwater for long periods of time because one breath lasts them a really long time.

Answer 4

No.

All turtles are air breathers.

They must breath air at some point in order to live.

Even though they can stay underwater for long periods of time.

Answer 5

I think the previous answerers didn't understand your question. I'm sure you mean turtles that live their whole life in water. Obviously they breathe air, just like clawed and dwarf frogs. But for freshwater turtles that never need to come out of the water other than to lay eggs, snapping turtles and softshell turtles. Often mud and musk turtles are the same way, but some of them will bask.

Answer 6

Tropical Fresh-Water Turtle, Chelodina-Rugosa (Testudinata, Chelidae)

Answer 7

sea turtle but the all occasionally come up for a gasp of air. all sea creatures do.

Answer 8

All turtles lay their eggs on land. Most turtles bask, even snappers (albeit rarely). While all turtles breathe air, some can extract dissolved oxygen from the water. Softshell turtles do this through the cloaca; there is evidence that snapping turtles can do this through the pharynx. In answer to your question, no.