Diverse anatomy of the tongue and taste organs in five species of caecilian (Amphibia: Gymnophiona)
- Limited previous studies on caecilian taste organs have demonstrated the presence of very few taste buds in the oral epithelium, while providing somewhat contradictory reports of their distribution within the oropharynx and across taxa. Here we report on the gross morphology of the tongue and explore the distribution, number and morphology of taste organs of five caecilian species representing five families, focusing upon variation within the group and investigating whether larvae and adults have the same type of taste organs. We find that taste buds are widespread in the oropharynx of caecilians and that they occur both in adults and larvae of a species with a biphasic life history. Thus Gymnophiona differ substantially from Batriachia, which have distinct larval and adult taste organs.
| Author details: | Karolina A. Budzik, Krystyna Zuwala, Alexander Kupfer, David J. Gower, Mark Wilkinson |
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| DOI: | https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jcz.2015.04.007 |
| ISSN: | 0044-5231 |
| Title of parent work (English): | Zoologischer Anzeiger = Journal of comparative zoology : morphology, systematics, biogeography |
| Publisher: | Elsevier |
| Place of publishing: | Jena |
| Publication type: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Year of first publication: | 2015 |
| Publication year: | 2015 |
| Release date: | 2017/03/27 |
| Tag: | Amphibian; Number of taste organs; Sensory zone; Taste buds |
| Volume: | 257 |
| Number of pages: | 7 |
| First page: | 103 |
| Last Page: | 109 |
| Funding institution: | DSC [K/DSC/000879, K/ZDS/004191]; Zoological Society of London (Erasmus Darwin Barlow grant); Royal Zoological Society of Scotland |
| Organizational units: | Mathematisch-Naturwissenschaftliche Fakultät / Institut für Biochemie und Biologie |
| Peer review: | Referiert |
