Ultrastructural comparison between the oral cavity floor of the juvenile and adult Epinephelus aeneus: New vision of aging development and its carnivorous adaptation.

The current work is designed to give the first trial to characterize the ultrastructural lineaments of the oral cavity floor in juvenile and adult white grouper. The present work depends on 10 oral cavities floor from each age. The common features joined the oral cavities floor of the juvenile and adult fish summarized in; oral cavity floor had two teeth bands (lower incisive and lower molar), tongue with its two lateral spinated lines, lower velum, ridges, the lower lip divided into a single anterior part and two lateral part, and the absence of lower canine teeth. The oral surface of semilunar lower velum had round fungiform papillae that carried taste buds type I. The non-protrusible elongated tongue had a clear apex, body, and root with the absence of any taste buds. The dorsal lingual surface of the body had two lateral spinated lines, a single ridge and microtubercles. The smooth dorsal lingual surface of the root did not carry any ridges. The notched lower velum at the middle of the free border was observed in juveniles and adults. Meanwhile, there are some variations between juvenile and adult as; absence of lower incisive ridge only in juvenile, pointed tongue with sublingual ridge observed in juvenile while round without sublingual ridge in adult fish, moreover the presence of velvar ridges observed only in adult fish. The obtained findings provided essential data to aquaculture of this fish species in Egypt by determining the food particle types that are favorite to this fish. HIGHLIGHTS: The common features joined the oral cavities floor of the juvenile and adult fish summarized in; oral cavity floor had two teeth bands (lower incisive and lower molar), tongue with its two lateral spinated lines, lower velum, ridges, the lower lip divided into a single anterior part and two lateral part, and the absence of lower canine teeth. The oral surface of semilunar lower velum had round fungiform papillae that carried taste buds type I. The dorsal lingual surface of the body had two lateral spinated lines, a single ridge and microtubercles. The smooth dorsal lingual surface of the root did not carry any ridges. Meanwhile, there are some variations between juvenile and adult as; absence of lower incisive ridge only in juvenile, pointed tongue with sublingual ridge observed in juvenile while round without sublingual ridge in adult fish, moreover the presence of velvar ridges observed only in adult fish.