Pastor Juan Francisco, Muchlinski Magdalena Natalia, Potau Josep Maria, Casado Aroa, García-Mesa Yolanda, Vega Jose Antonio, Cabo Roberto
"Osteology and Compared Anatomy" Research Group, Departament of Anatomy and Radiology, University of Valladolid, 47005 Valladolid, Spain.
Anatomical Sciences & Education Center, Oregon Health and Science University, Portland, OR 97239, USA.
Animals (Basel). 2021 Sep 27;11(10):2811. doi: 10.3390/ani11102811.
The mobility of the primate tongue allows for the manipulation of food, but, in addition, houses both general sensory afferents and special sensory end organs. Taste buds can be found across the tongue, but the ones found within the fungiform papillae on the anterior two thirds of the tongue are the first gustatory structures to come into contact with food, and are critical in making food ingestion decisions. Comparative studies of both the macro and micro anatomy in primates are sparse and incomplete, yet there is evidence that gustatory adaptation exists in several primate taxa. One is the distally feathered tongues observed in non-destructive nectar feeders, such as . We compare both the macro and micro anatomy of three lemurid species who died of natural causes in captivity. We included the following two non-destructive nectar feeders: and , and the following destructive flower feeder: . Strepsirrhines and tarsiers are unique among primates, because they possess a sublingua, which is an anatomical structure that is located below the tongue. We include a microanatomical description of both the tongue and sublingua, which were accomplished using hematoxylin-eosin and Masson trichrome stains, and scanning electron microscopy. We found differences in the size, shape, and distribution of fungiform papillae, and differences in the morphology of conical papillae surrounding the circumvallate ones in all three species. Most notably, large distinct papillae were present at the tip of the tongue in nectar-feeding species. In addition, histological images of the ventro-apical portion of the tongue displayed that it houses an encapsulated structure, but only in case such structure presents cartilage inside. The presence of an encapsulated structure, coupled with the shared morphological traits associated with the sublingua and the tongue tip in and , point to possible feeding adaptations that facilitate non-destructive flower feeding in these two lemurids.
灵长类动物的舌头具有灵活性，有助于对食物进行操控，此外，舌内还分布着一般感觉传入神经和特殊感觉终末器官。味蕾遍布于整个舌头，但位于舌前三分之二的菌状乳头内的味蕾是最先接触食物的味觉结构，对于做出食物摄取决策至关重要。对灵长类动物宏观和微观解剖结构的比较研究较为稀少且不完整，不过有证据表明几种灵长类分类群中存在味觉适应现象。其中之一是在如 等非破坏性花蜜取食者中观察到的舌远端有羽毛状结构。我们比较了三只在圈养环境中自然死亡的狐猴物种的宏观和微观解剖结构。我们纳入了以下两种非破坏性花蜜取食者： 和 ，以及以下破坏性花朵取食者： 。原猴亚目动物和跗猴在灵长类动物中很独特，因为它们拥有舌下舌，这是一种位于舌头下方的解剖结构。我们对舌头和舌下舌进行了微观解剖描述，采用苏木精 - 伊红染色和马松三色染色以及扫描电子显微镜完成。我们发现所有三个物种的菌状乳头在大小、形状和分布上存在差异，围绕轮廓乳头的锥形乳头在形态上也存在差异。最显著的是，花蜜取食物种的舌尖处有大而明显的乳头。此外，舌头腹尖部分的组织学图像显示其内部有一个被膜结构，但仅在 情况下该结构内部有软骨。被膜结构的存在，再加上 和 中与舌下舌和舌尖相关的共同形态特征，表明这两种狐猴可能存在有助于非破坏性花朵取食的进食适应性。
