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Scanning Electron Microscopic Structure of the Lingual Papillae of the Common Opossum (Didelphis marsupialis)

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  07 July 2005

Shigenori Okada  and
Dean E. Schraufnagel
Shigenori Okada
Affiliation:
Section of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612-7323, USA
Dean E. Schraufnagel
Affiliation:
Section of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, Department of Medicine, University of Illinois at Chicago, Chicago, IL 60612-7323, USA
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Abstract

The mammalian tongue has evolved for specialized functions in different species. The structure of its papillae tells about the animal's diet, habit, and taxonomy. The opossum has four kinds of lingual papillae (filiform, conical, fungiform, vallate). Scanning electron microscopy of the external features, connective tissue cores, and corrosion casts of the microvasculature show the filiform papillae have a spearhead-like main process and spiny accessory processes around the apical part of the main process. The shape and number of both processes depend on their position on the tongue. On the apex, the main processes have shovel-like capillary networks and the accessory processes have small conical networks. On the lingual radix, the processes have small capillary loops. In the patch region, conical papillae have capillaries arranged as a full sail curving posteriorly. The fungiform papillae are scattered among the filiform papillae and have capillary baskets beneath each taste bud. Giant fungiform papillae on the tongue tip are three to four times larger than the ones on the lingual body. Capillaries of giant papillae form a fan-shaped network. The opossum has three vallate papillae arranged in a triangle. Their tops have secondary capillary loops but not their lateral surfaces. Mucosal folds on the posterolateral border have irregular, fingerlike projections with cylindrical capillary networks. These findings and the structure of the rest of the masticatory apparatus suggest the lingual papillae of opossum have kept their ancestral carnivorous features but also developed the herbivore characteristics of other marsupials.

Keywords

tonguemicrovasculaturecorrosion castingMarsupialiaopossummicroscopyscanning electron
Type
BIOLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Information
Microscopy and Microanalysis , Volume 11 , Issue 4 , August 2005 , pp. 319 - 332
Copyright
© 2005 Microscopy Society of America

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