Morphometry of tongue in goat foetuses

The tongue was studied in 15 foetuses of goat. The torus linguae and transverse lingual fossa were well defined in group 3. The percentage length of tongue to CR length reduced from 22% in group 1 to 19% in groups 2 and 3. The ratio of length and width, and length and thickness narrowed in group 2 and 3. The circumvallate papillae were 3 to 15 in group 2 and 11 to 15 in group 3. The lamina epithelialis was thicker on dorsum than on ventral aspect of tongue. It comprised of 2 to 3 layers of undifferentiated flattened cells in group 1. In groups 2 and 3 the nonkeratinized stratified squmous epithelium lined the mucous membrane of the tongue. The thickness of intrinsic lingual muscle mass increased from group 1 to 3.