Morphological study on the tongue of Korean native goat

한국재래산양 혀에 관한 형태학적 연구

This studies were carried out to identify the characteristics of the tongue of Korean native goat(Capra hircus) by macroscopy, microscopy and scanning microscopy. Korean native goat had torus linguae, median lingual sulcus, lingual fossa and ventral median fissure but did not have glossoepiglottic fold and terminal sulcus in the tongue. The whole length of tongue was $11.51{\pm}0.76cm$. The length of tongue apex, tongue body, tongue root and the torus linguae were $2.62{\pm}0.28$, $7.39{\pm}0.27$, $1.56{\pm}0.26$ and $6.37{\pm}0.29cm$, respectively. The width of tongue apex, torus linguae and tongue root were $3.41{\pm}0.24$, $3.74{\pm}0.29$ and $3.68{\pm}0.11$, respectively. The thickness of tongue apex was $1.60{\pm}0.10$, and the height of torus linguae was $1.52{\pm}0.15cm$. Filiform papillae were present at the tongue apex and the tongue body rostral to torus linguae. Fungiform papillae were scattered from tongue apex to rostral portion of torus linguae, being in abundance at the tongue apex. Vallate papillae were showed at the lateral portion of torus linguae, while lentiform papillae were present at its central portion. Conical papillae were located between vallate and lentiform papillae. The numbers of filiform, fungiform, conical, vallate and lentiform papillae were $46,980{\pm}1070.98$, $446.8{\pm}36.97$, $818.4{\pm}43.99$, $34.8{\pm}2.77$, and $255.6{\pm}39.30$, respectively. The average numbers of taste bud were $8.3{\pm}2.04$ in a fungiform papilla and $247.3{\pm}37.44$ in a vallate papilla. The filiform papilla had secondary and tertiary papillae. The height of filiform papilla was about $150{\mu}m$ and the diameter was $100{\mu}m$. The diameters of fungiform papillae were 350 to $550{\mu}m$. The long and short diameters of maximum-sized lentiform papilla were 4000 and $3000{\mu}m$, respectively, while those of minimum-sized papilla were 700 and $600{\mu}m$, respectively. The height of conical papillae was 450 to $600{\mu}m$ and diameter was 250 to $450{\mu}m$. The vallate papilla was round or oval in shape and its diameter was 500 to $850{\mu}m$. It had well-developed papillary groove around itself. The modified conical papillae were not observed in the tongue of Korean native goat.