Oral Cavity 12

Here, at higher magnification is the dorsal portion of the tongue in Oral Cavity 11. Note the relatively thin stratified squamous surface epithelium (E), which rests on a thin, highly cellular, connective tissue domain - the lamina propria (LP). Deeper down (upper half of the field), the abundance of skeletal muscle (M) is obvious: the fact that the fibers are relatively small in diameter is related to the age (young) of the animal and the fact that the tongue tends to have relatively small fibers, which implies a high ratio of innervation to muscle mass and, therefore, fine scale control of movement of the organ. Note that, in the region closer to the surface it is difficult to distinguish whether the eosinophilic fibers are muscle or connective tissue (?).

Slide N-7, field M31 of finder slide B, 16X objective