THE ANATOMY OF THE TONGUES OF THE MAMMALIA. 515' 



28. The Comparative Anatomy of the Tongues o£ the 

 Mammalia. — IX. Edentata, Dermoptera, and Insec- 

 tivora. By Charles F. Sonntag, M.D., F.Z.S., 

 Anatomist to the Society and Demonstrator of 

 Anatomy, University College. 



[Received May 4, 1923 : Read May 29, 1923.] 



(Text-figures 50-57.) 



Contents. 



Page 



Older Edentata 515 



„ Dermoptera 522 



„ Insectivora 523 



Conclusions 527 



Bibliography 527 



Order EDENTATA. 



Tlie tongues . of the Edentata are characterised by a high 

 degree of specialisation of their extrinsic muscles, and by a 

 slight or moderate development of their glands and gustatory 

 organs. Their mobility is greater than that of all other 

 Mammalian tongues except those of Zaglossus and Acanthoglossus. 

 In the Myrmecophagida) and Manidje the mobility is designed 

 mainly for the purposes of prehension ; but in other Edentates 

 prehension is combined with a mechanical action of the food. 



Form, Apex and Lateral Borders: — The tongue is long, 

 vermiform and not flattened anteriorly in the Myrmecophagidfe 

 (text-fig. 50) ; it is cylindrical posteriorly and flattened anterior!}^ 

 in the Manid?© (text-fig. 52) ; it is long, flat and triangular in 

 the Dasypodidse and Orycterojms (text-fig. 52) ; and it is short, 

 with the usual Mammalian form in the Bradypodidai*. 



The apex is rounded in the Bradypodidse ; it is pointed in 

 Orycteropus ; and it bears peculiar globular or pointed organs 

 in the other Edentates. These take the form of globular 

 expansions of the whole apex in the Myrmecophagidae and 

 Dasypodidse, or of a button-like structure attached to the centre 

 of the apex in the Manidse (text-figs. 50 and 52). No trace 

 of this terminal swelling is present in the Bradypodidse and 

 Orycteropus. I was unable to examine the swellings micro- 

 scopically to settle their nature, as the tongues are preserved 

 in the Museum of the Royal College of Surgeons. Some authors 

 regard them as sense organs, and Mayer (14) described the 

 swelling in Myrmecophaga as gustatory in function. Perhaps 



* See text-fig. 10 in my paper on the anatomy of Bradypus (26). 

 Proc. Zool. Soc— 1923, No. XXXIY. 34 



