{"id":43870,"date":"2024-11-15T14:05:26","date_gmt":"2024-11-15T13:05:26","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/055e7e37-315f-4924-b2c0-dad997e2fdbb"},"modified":"2024-11-15T15:27:27","modified_gmt":"2024-11-15T14:27:27","slug":"bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse","status":"publish","type":"rss_feed","link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/rss_feed\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse\/","title":{"rendered":"Bottoms are just for pooping and peeing right? Not always… This animal can also breathe and eat through its anus – meet the world’s most amazing arse"},"content":{"rendered":"

This has to be the world’s most weirdest bottom, says Stuart Blackman <\/p>

By <\/p>

Published: Friday, 15 November 2024 at 13:05 PM<\/p>

\n\n

Like many of its kind, the giant California sea cucumber Parastichopus californicus<\/em> is an anal ventilator’ – it pumps sea water rhythmically in and out of its rear end to aerate finely branched structures in its large intestine called respiratory trees, which absorb oxygen from the water.<\/strong><\/p>

What sets P. californicus apart from the rest is that it doesn’t just breathe through its anus -it eats through it, too. The respiratory trees also serve as filters, sieving algae<\/a> and other microbes suspended in the water for digestion in the usual manner.<\/p>

Meanwhile, up at the front, the cucumber’s oral tentacles<\/a> rummage around for morsels in the sediment. With a mouth at each end, the creature is able to exploit two different food sources simultaneously.<\/p>

Many other animals, including featherstars and some worms and crustaceans, are also known to anally ventilate, so the behaviour might yet turn out to be a rather common one.<\/p>

Definitely worthy of a place on our weirdest sea creatures list<\/a> if not weirdest animals<\/a><\/p>

Meet another weird sea cucumber that fires poisonous intestines from its butt to deter predators<\/a>. Don’t worry, they grow back…<\/p> <\/body><\/html>\n

","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This has to be the world’s most weirdest bottom, says Stuart Blackman <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":43871,"template":"","categories":[1],"acf":{"readingTimeMinutes":"< 1"},"uagb_featured_image_src":{"full":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse.jpg",2560,1942,false],"thumbnail":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse-300x228.jpg",300,228,true],"medium_large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse-768x583.jpg",768,583,true],"large":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse-1024x777.jpg",800,607,true],"1536x1536":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse-1536x1165.jpg",1536,1165,true],"2048x2048":["https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/uploads\/sites\/44\/2024\/11\/bottoms-are-just-for-pooping-and-peeing-right-not-always-this-animal-can-also-breathe-and-eat-through-its-anus-meet-the-worlds-most-amazing-arse-2048x1554.jpg",2048,1554,true]},"uagb_author_info":{"display_name":"importmanagerhub@sprylab.com","author_link":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/author\/importmanagerhubsprylab-com\/"},"uagb_comment_info":0,"uagb_excerpt":"This has to be the world's most weirdest bottom, says Stuart Blackman","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed\/43870"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/rss_feed"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/rss_feed"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/43871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=43870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/c01.purpledshub.com\/bbcwildlife\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=43870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}