Comparative morphological study of the lingual papillae and their connective tissue cores of the koala

Abstract

The stereo structure of each lingual papilla of the koala has a similar structure to that of various other animal species: the koala has a lingual prominence (intermolar prominence) with larger filiform papillae. (A lingual prominence is a characteristic in herbivorous animals.) The external form and connective tissue core (CTC) of the filiform papillae of koalas consist of one large main process and several smaller accessory processes. (These are similar to carnivorous animals.) Fungiform CTC have a thick dome-like structure, with several taste buds on the top. There are three vallate papillae: one central midline and two laterally located vallate papillae. The central vallate papilla has a posterior pouch lined with ciliated and non-ciliated epithelial cells. Long conical papillae are distributed in the posterior lateral area where foliate papillae are distributed in many other animal species. (Finger-like papillae are seen in dog and cat instead of foliate papillae.) It may be suggested that the tongue of the koala evolved in a special environment in Australia. Even though it has still retained special features similar to those of carnivorous cats and dogs it has evolved to resemble the tongues of herbivorous animals.

Morphology of the lingual papillae in the eastern grey kangaroo

“…Furthermore, in the genus Didelphis, elongated mucosal folds with numerous, irregular, fingerlike projections were identified on the posterolateral borders where foliate papillae are normally found in other species. Kobayashi et al (2003) reported that the external form and connective tissue core of the filiform papillae of koalas consist of one large main process and several smaller accessory ones. Three vallate papillae were identified: one central midline (round type) and two laterally located (slit-like type) ones.…”

“…In the order Marsupialia, there have been a few scanning electron microscopy (SEM) studies on the tongues of opossum (Krause and Cutts, 1982), koala (Kobayashi et al, 2003), red kangaroo (Emura et al, 2004), sugar glider (Emura, 2011) and brush-tailed rat kangaroo (Emura et al, 2014). Such studies have revealed variations in the morphology and distribution of papillae on the dorsal lingual surface among animal species.…”

Características das papilas o dorso da língua de cabras (Capra hircus): estudo por de microscopia eletrônica de varredura e luz

“…Essa diferença morfológica pode ser devida ao tipo de alimentação, que pode contribuir para a alteração no formato das papilas em contato com o alimento durante a ingestão e mastigação. Já Agungpriyono et al (1995), Kobayashi et al (2003) e Benetti et al (2009) não relatam a presença desse tipo de papila na língua das espécies estudadas.…”

“…As papilas ϐiliformes, cônicas e lentiformes possuem funções mecânicas, enquanto que as fungiformes, valadas e foliáceas possuem função gustativa (Konig & Liebich 2004). Diversos artigos descrevem as características estruturais e ultraestruturais das papilas linguais de roedores (Hume & Potten 1976, Kobayashi et al 2003, felinos (Boshell & Wilborn 1982), equinos e ruminantes (Chamorro et al 1986, Paz Cabello et al 1988, ruminantes selvagens (Agungprivono et al 1995), caninos (Iwasaki & Miyata 1989), queixada ), bicho-preguiça (Benetti et al 2009) e koala (Kobayashi et al 2003), entre outros.…”

The microstructure of lingual papillae in the Egyptian fruit bat (Rousettus aegyptiacus) as observed by light microscopy and scanning electron microscopy

“…The distribution of three vallate papillae in the form of a triangle in the Egyptian fruit bat is similar to frugivorous species (Emura et al, 2001(Emura et al, , 2002, although the number of vallate papillae in bats varies; the long-nosed bat has four of them, whereas the bats from the Vespertilionidae, Rhinolophidae, Hipposideridae families and the European free-tailed bats have two vallate papillae, and the blooddrinking Desmodus rotundus has none (Greenbaum and Phillips, 1974). It should be noted that the arrangement of three vallate papillae is commonly observed in marsupials which are also an older mammalian order (Kubota et al, 1963;Krause and Cutts, 1982;Abe et al, 2001;Kobayashi et al, 2003).…”