2009 Volume 86 Issue 1 Pages 17-24
We used four ferrets (Mustela putorius furo) and observed these animals dorsal tongue surface morphology via scanning electron microscope and light microscope. In this investigation, we focused on the food habits and discussed the morphology of the lingual papillae from the viewpoint of comparative anatomy. The ferret has conically-shaped filiform papillae in the posterior, middle and anterior region of the tongue body, and circular-distributed filiform papillae in the lingual apex region. The ferret has fungiform papillae with hemispheric shaped summits in the posterior and middle region with square-shaped summits in the anterior and the lingual apex region. The ferret has V-shaped vallate papillae with eight papillae in two lines or 12 papillae in three lines on the tongue root. No foliate papillae were observed on the dorsal tongue surface of the ferret. The ferret belongs to the carnivore family but has a highly developed vallate papillae which are taste bud papillae and many taste glands. Thus we conclude that the ferrets need a large amount of saliva to swallow food because it demonstrates a large number of taste glands.
