DocID: https://connectjournals.com/03896.2020.20.

5923

Biochem. Cell. Arch. Vol. 20, No. 2, pp. 5923-5926, 2020 www.connectjournals.com/bca ISSN 0972-5075

MORPHOLOGICAL STUDY OF THE TONGUE IN MONGOOSE

(HERPESTES JAVANICUS)
Marwa Khalil Ibrahim* and Iman Smai Ahmed Al-Jumaily
Department of Biology, Collage of Education for Pure Science (Ibn Al-Haitham), University of Baghdad, Iraq.
*e-mail : marwakhalil005@gmail.com
(Received 15 April 2020, Revised 7 July 2020, Accepted 13 July 2020)

ABSTRACT : The aim of the current study is to identify the morphological description of the tongue in mongoose (Herpestes
javanicus) and its relation to the feeding pattern. For this purpose the (5) samples of tongues were dissected from the head of
mongoosecaught from different areas of Al-Najaf province, cleaned in normal saline and examined under the dissecting
microscope. The results showed the absence of the middle groove in the lingual apex area. As well as the absence of lingual
prominence in the body area. The dorsal surface is characterized by the presence of four types from lingual papillae (filiform,
cylindrical, fungiform, circumvallate), while the ventral surface is free of lingual papillae. The filiform papillae spread throughout
the dorsal surface of the tongue and scattered among them fungiform papillae, as well as the presence of cylindrical papillae
only at the cranial part of the lingual body. Three circumvallate papillae are observed on the lingual root, while foliate papillae
are absent. The margin of lingual apex is being round and thin. The cranial part of lingual body is characterized by appears
simple circular depression called the lingual fossa, which cylindrical papillae are located in it, whereas the ventral surface of
the tongue is distinguished by the presence of a rod-like structure called the lyssa. These results are related to function
composition and feeding pattern of this animal.
Key words : Mongoose, tongue, lingual papillae.

INTRODUCTION MATERIALS AND METHODS

Several previous studies have dealt with the study of
the tongue in different mammals, which consisted of
hedgehog (Hemiechinus auritus) (Jabbar, 2014) study,
the local mice (Mus musculus) (Abd Al-Rhman et al,
2016), wild adult male rabbit (Oryctolagus cunculus)
(Al-Mahmodi, 2016), bat (Pipistrillus kuhli) (Mutlalk et
al, 2017) and Lesser hedgehog tenrec (Echinopstel
fairi) (Cizek et al, 2020). The scarcity of studies on
endangered Iraqi mammals has been a stimulant the
proposal of the current study involving mongoose. This
animal is mammal that belongs to the order of carnivora
from the family of Herpestidae (Al-Sheikhly and Haba,
2014). It feeds on arthropods, invertebrates, small reptiles
and some types of mammals such as mice and squirrels,
as it is invasion farms and killing more chickens than it
needs in its food, causing great losses to the farms’
owners (Cavallini and Nel, 1995; Mahmood et al, 2011).
The purpose of this study contributed to knowledge
of the morphological description of tongue in wild
mammal (mongoose) and its relationship to the feeding
pattern as well as to compare it with other mammals.
The present study required the collection of 5 samples
of adult living animals regardless of the sex of the
mongoose, caught from different areas of Al-Najaf
province. The animals used in this study were
anaesthetized with chloroform for 15-30 minutes and then
dissected the animals and removed the tongue from the
head. The samples were cleaned in normal saline and
examined under the dissecting microscope .
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
The tongue of mongoose, which isthe subject of this
study, appears to be prolonged (Fig. 1) and is positioned
at the lower jaw to settle at the bottom of the oral cavity,
which is associated with it by a membrane fold called
lingual frenulum, which is a long and wide membrane
(Fig. 2) and this result is a confirmed fact of what most
of the previous references to the tongue of mammals
(Kent and Carr, 2001; Kardong, 2002; Ghali and Dauod,
2014). Long and wide lingual frenulum helps to make the
movement of the tongue freer because the nature of its
food, which needs a tongue that is highly efficient in
cutting and chewing prey. The tongue of the mongoose,
which isthe subject of the current study divided into three
5924 Marwa Khalil Ibrahim and ImanSmai Ahmed Al-Jumaily
Fig. 1 : General morphology of mongoose’s tongue showing: apex
(A), body (B), root (R), cylindrical papilla (CyP).
Fig. 2 : Frenulum (F) in mongoose’s.
Fig. 3 : Ventral surface of mongoose’s tongue showing Lyssa (Ly),
Frenulum(F),7x.
parts represented by the interior part (apex) and the middle
part (body) and the posterior part (root) (Fig. 1). This
result is a confirmed fact of that most of the references
(Mohebinia and Ghassemi, 2013; Ghassemi and Jahromi,
2013; Abumandour, 2014; Abd Al-Rhman et al, 2016).
The margin of lingual apex looks round and thin , and
lacks the middle groove (Fig. 1) and this result corresponds
to many studies (Kobayashi et al, 2003; Sarma et al,
2009; Mohabady et al, 2010; Mohebinia and Ghassemi,
2013). This is related to the structural composition based
on the requirements of the functional need of this organ
according to the nature of animal nutrition. It was noted
that the dorsal surface of the body is absent of lingual
prominence and this result is consistent with the several
studies (Benetti et al, 2009; Mohammed et al, 2014;
Goodarzi and Azarhoosh, 2016), but inconsistent with
another (Yoshimura et al, 2008; Al-Mahmodi, 2016;
Wannaprasert, 2017). This is related to functional
composition and feeding pattern. The tonguewas
characterized by the presence of rod-like structure called
Lyssa extend at the median plane of ventral surface under
the free tip of the tongue to relate with frenulum (Fig. 3)
and this result is agree with other studies (Besoluk et al,
2006; Jackowiak et al, 2009; Shoeib et al, 2014), while it
is disagree with study of Takemura et al (2018) and
Sadeghinezhad et al (2018). The fact that the animal in
present study belongs to carnivora order, which possesses
this composition and which is related to the nature of
nutrition. The dorsal surface of the tongue contains
different types of papillae represented by filiform,
cylindrical, fungiform and circumvallate (Figs. 4, 5) and
this result confirms with some studies that mentioned the
presence of filiform, fungiform and circumvallate papillae
in the tongues’ animals that included their studies (Scala
et al, 1993; Al-Jebori, 2007; Ciuccio et al, 2010). The
present study isconsistent with the study of Karan et al
(2011), which described cylindrical papillae as a type of
filiform papillae and that the variation in the types of lingual
papillae is a characteristic of the anatomical structure
associated with the type of food for mammals. The
ventral surface of mongoose’s tongue is characterized
by its absence from lingual papillae except for the
presence of Lyssa and frenulum and this result is
consistent with other studies (Jackowiak et al, 2009;
Shoeib et al, 2014; Sadeghinezhad et al, 2017), whereas
this result contrary to Wannaprasert (2017) and
Sadeghinezhad et al (2018). This may be due to the type
of the food on which carnivoradepend. Filiform papillae
are distributed throughout the dorsal surface of the tongue
and are spread among them by fungiform papillae that
look like mushrooms (Fig. 4) and this result corresponds
to other studies (Emura et al, 2007; Abd Al-Rhaman et
al, 2016; Sadeghinezhad et al, 2017). The function of the
filiformpapillaes is to be mechanical and its importance
is centered in installing food pieces to prevent them from
slipping and falling, while fungi form papillae do a
gustatory function. The circumvallate papillae are three
arranged in inverted V-shaped positioned at the lingual
 Morphological study of the tongue in mongoose
Fig. 4 : Dorsal surface of mongoose’s tongue showing: filiform
papillae (FP), fungi form papillae (FuP) and circum vallate
papillae (CP) 15x.
Fig. 5 : Dorsal surface of mongoose’s tongue showing: Cylindrical
papillae (CyP) in the fossa, 12x.
Fig. 6 : Lingual root of mongoose’s tongue showing: Circumvallate
papillae(CP), Pad(P), Groove(G), 17x.
5925
root,each one surrounded by a groove and crescent pad
(Figs. 4, 6). This result is consistent with other references
(Parchami et al, 2018; Sadeghinezhad et al, 2018;
Yoshimura et al, 2019) and this type of papillae performs
a gustatory function. The position of cylindrical papillae
is observed at the cranial part of the lingual body in the
simple circular depression called the lingual fossa (Figs.
1, 5) and this result is partly compatible with the result of
procupine (Hystrixc ristata) (Karan et al, 2011) and
Persian leopard (Pantherapardus saxicolar)
(Sadeghinezhad et al, 2017) as this type of papillae is
described in these studies as one of the types of filiform
papillae. These papillae have a mechanical function.
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