مشخصات پژوهش

This work was conducted to investigate the morphological features of the tongue of Indian crested porcupine (Hystrix indica) (ICP). Tongues of three adult ICP cadavers, (1 male, 2 females), dying of reasons unrelated to this study (hunting abandonment), were examined. The tongue of ICP was slender shaped with a round apex. The average length and width of the tongue were 83.5 mm and 20.46 mm respectively. There was no significant change in the width of the tongue, but it gradually became narrower from the root to the tip of the apex. The tongue was sloping rostrocaudally in the lateral view forming prominent protrusion, torus linguae. Sulcus linguae was present in the rostral portion of the tongue with being significantly deeper rostrally. Keratinized dorsum was covered by papillae of a different shape. A pair of circumvallate papillae were in the caudal part of dorsum linguae. Foliate papillae were well developed, including 16 to 18 clefts of which the median ones were deeper and larger located sides of the root. Fungiform papillae were observed in the caudal half of the tongue. These were arranged in two longitudinal lines. Filiform papillae cover almost entire dorsum. Most of these, especially in caudal half, were cylindrical with a black pigmented apex. Conical papillae were situated on the sides of sulcus linguae in oblique rows, they were comb-shaped with different sizes. Filiform and fungiform papillae were also distributed on the ventral surface of the tip of the tongue. Further histological and electron microscopy assessment is planned.