{"id":356494,"date":"2018-04-13T02:22:00","date_gmt":"2018-04-13T01:22:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/green-haired-turtle-that-breathes-through-its-genitals-added-to-endangered-list\/"},"modified":"2018-04-13T02:22:00","modified_gmt":"2018-04-13T01:22:00","slug":"green-haired-turtle-that-breathes-through-its-genitals-added-to-endangered-list","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/newswire\/green-haired-turtle-that-breathes-through-its-genitals-added-to-endangered-list\/","title":{"rendered":"Green-Haired Turtle That Breathes Through Its Genitals Added to Endangered List"},"content":{"rendered":"<div id=\"\">\n<p>It sports a green mohican, fleshy finger-like growths under its chin and can breathe through its genitals.<\/p>\n<p>The Mary river turtle is one of the most striking creatures on the planet, and it is also one of the most endangered.<\/p>\n<p>The 40cm long turtle, which is only found on the Mary river in Queensland, features in a new list of the most vulnerable reptile species compiled by the Zoological Society of London (ZSL).<\/p>\n<p>Despite the turtle\u2019s punk appearance \u2013 derived from vertical strands of algae that also grow on its body \u2013 its docile nature made it historically popular as a pet.<\/p>\n<p>Gill-like organs within its cloaca \u2013 an orifice used by reptiles for excretion and mating \u2013 enable it to stay underwater for up to three days, but it was unable to hide from the pet collectors who raided its nests during the 1960s and 1970s.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The turtle is placed at 30th on ZSL\u2019s\u00a0Evolutionarily Distinct and Globally Endangered (Edge) list for reptiles. First established in 2007,\u00a0Edge lists\u00a0have previously been published for amphibians, birds, corals and mammals, helping guide conservation priorities for 100 most at-risk species. Each species is given a score which combines extinction risk with its evolutionary isolation or uniqueness, with the latest list supported by\u00a0a study in the journal Plos One.<\/p>\n<p>Top of the list is the\u00a0Madagascar big-headed turtle, which has an Edge score higher than that of any other amphibian, bird or mammal, and is still taken for food and global trade.<\/p>\n<p>Other&#8230;<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/redice.tv\/news\/green-haired-turtle-that-breathes-through-its-genitals-added-to-endangered-list\">Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>It sports a green mohican, fleshy finger-like growths under its chin and can breathe through its genitals. The Mary river turtle is one of the most striking creatures on the planet, and it is also one of the most endangered. The 40cm long turtle, which is only found on the Mary river in Queensland, features [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2520,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[519],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-356494","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-newswire"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356494","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2520"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=356494"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/356494\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=356494"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=356494"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/rinf.com\/alt-news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=356494"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}