The Morphological Study of the Lingua in Stork (Ciconia Ciconia)

Abstract

In this study, we morphologically investigated storks' tongue and compared with other avian species for the similarities and differences. Six storks were used in the study. Stork tongue composed of three parts; apex linguae, corpus linguae and radix linguae and were connected with frenulum linguae in the ventral of the mount. The most thick epithelial layer and the most keratinization were located on the apex linguae and the dorsal part of the radix linguae in stork tongue. Although, macroscopically papillae was not seen, on microscopical examination filiform papillae was observed on the dorsal part of the radix linguae. Lingual glands were not present in the submucosal layer. In conclusion, it is the first time that morphological structure of tongue in the storks have been investigated.