Gross morphology and morphometry of apparently normal tongues of forty antenatal and ten adult dromedaries (Camelus dromedarius) of both sexes, procured from the Maiduguri Metropolitan abattoir, were studied. This was with the aim of documenting information on these aspects. The thirteen months dromedary gestation period was divided into four quarters for the purpose of the foetal tongue morphometric study, with ten foetuses per quarter. The prenatal and postnatal tongues were grossly observed to be flat apically and oval basally. They were highly flexible, like other ruminants' tongues, and relatively small to the overall sizes of the study animals. The highest lingual weight percentage of the body weight of 0.39% was attained at the second prenatal growth phase of the dromedary while the least, 0.16%, was attained in the adult. The foetal tongues showed levels of significant increases in sizes and weights throughout the prenatal growth phases. It was concluded that the dromedary tongue is similar to other ruminant tongues and most of the salient gross features, like gustatory and non-gustatory papillae, of the dromedary tongue were already obvious as early as the first prenatal growth phase (2 -3 months) and the remaining three periods were associated with size increases. In the prenatal dromedary tongues studied, the salient gross features of the tongue were fully evident right from the first quarter of gestation (first three months of prenatal life), but were relatively small in size. Likewise; the mean dimensions and the weights obtained in the present study, showed significant increments across the four-quarters gestation. This is not unrelated with the structural developments of the overall body size and weights.

We present a study on the histologic developmental horizons of the dromedary tongue using abattoir samples. The 13 month dromedary gestation period was divided into four quarters, giving the dromedary four prenatal growth phases. Feotuses were recovered from slaughtered camels and 1 cm 2 samples were cut from dorsum and lateral parts of the apex, body and base of tongues of associated foetuses in each growth phase for histological analysis. The dorsal and lateral parts of the apex of the tongue showed variable sizes of underdeveloped filiform and fungiform papillae formed from the folding of non-keratinized stratified squamous epithelium. The filiform papillae were interspersed with fungiform papillae. A brief glandless propria-submucosa of vascularized connective tissue was continuous with their lamina epithelialis. The muscularis showed vertical, longitudinal and transverse (X, Y, Z) directions of skeletal muscles. Same arrangement was found at the lingual body. Underdeveloped lentiform papillae extended from the terminus of the caudal aspect of the lingual body to the rostral aspect of the lingual base. The lingual base showed underdeveloped fungiform and vallate papillae. The lingual body and base were highly muscularized. The muscularity became more obvious at the second and third quarters. Unique to the third phase was apical keratinization of filiform papillae, marking its full development. The propria-submucosa was highly vascularized. The fourth growth phase marked the stage for full development of most of parts of the tongue except the mucosa of the lingual base, where taste buds were not observed in gustatory papillae, eventhough an earlier study had observed taste buds in gustatory papillae of the adult dromedary. It was concluded that most of the salient features of the postnatal dromedary tongue, such as gustatory and non-gustatory papillae, were already evident as early as the first growth phase.