Exposed Animal Bellybutton



Navels: the scar everyone bears. Well, not everyone; in Real Life, only placental mammals have them, and humans have a particularly distinct range of shapes of their omphalos not seen in the rest of the infraclass Placentalia.

In fiction, however, animals on any level of anthropomorphism from Nearly-Normal Animal to Petting Zoo People (but especially Civilized Animals, Funny Animals, and Petting Zoo People) almost universally receive a human-like bellybutton under their clothes (if any), either "innie" or "outie," that can be seen through their fur, feathers, or scales.

This chooses to ignore the origin of the navel as the scar left over at the point where the umbilical had attached, so it wouldn't apply to marsupials or monotremes or any other animal who might instead come from an egg hatched internally or externally, never attached to the mother's blood supply...but perhaps omitting it if the cartoon animal has other human features would look weird, maybe putting the character in the Uncanny Valley.

A subtrope of Funny Animal Anatomy and Anatomy Anomaly. See also Nonhumans Lack Attributes.

Comics

 * Subverted in Garfield. The eponymous cat notices a black spot on his belly in the mirror and remarks "I didn't know I had a belly button". Said spot turns out to be a bug, which promptly flies away.
 * Though played straight with some animal characters who appeared in some strips of this comic, especially bigger ones.
 * Pig from Pearls Before Swine.
 * The title character of Pogo.
 * Nearly all the characters in Krazy Kat.
 * When drawn by Steven Butler, Princess Sally of Sonic the Hedgehog tends to have one.

Film

 * Rango the chameleon has a bellybutton.
 * Jiminy Cricket is shown to have a bellybutton in Pinocchio.

Literature

 * In Richard Scarry's Best Little Word Book Ever, the last page gives Huckle Cat this.

New Media

 * Most anthropomorphic art tends to be drawn with this.

Video Games

 * Crash Bandicoot has a bellybutton.
 * This trope is mentioned and subverted in Chrono Trigger. You can try to run from the prison by faking sickness. If Frog is the one faking sickness, he says his bellybutton hurts. After beating guards, he calls them fools for not knowing that frogs don't have bellybuttons.
 * Krystal has one, visible in Star Fox Adventures.
 * The Donkey Kong series seems inconsistent as to whether or not Kongs have them. In some games, they don't have them even when some reptilian characters do.
 * Rouge the Bat from the Sonic the Hedgehog series, although only when she's wearing alternate costumes.

Web Comics

 * In Freefall, not only does Florence (an anthropomorphized red wolf) have a visible belly button, there's even an indentation showing where it's located even when she's dressed in her normal jumpsuit.

Western Animation

 * The Ren and Stimpy Show gives the titular duo these in certain shots.
 * Newton from Ned's Newt. He even lampshaded it once: "If newts are born from eggs, why do I have a belly-button?" (beat) "Is a poorly-drawn 'x' an inny or an outy?"
 * Most of the animals in Eek! The Cat, including the title character.
 * Oggy and the Cockroaches.
 * Itchy and Scratchy from The Simpsons have bellybuttons.
 * Rodney J. Squirrel from Squirrel Boy has a bellybutton.
 * Almost Naked Animals.
 * Patrick Star from SpongeBob SquarePants has a bellybutton.
 * The Fat Bluebird from Homestar Runner.
 * Zee on Noggin
 * The title character of the Robbie the Reindeer specials.