Justin Morgan owned a bay colt born in 1789, he named Figure. Figure's ability to outwalk, outtrot, outrun, and outpull other horses was legendary. After Justin Morgan's death, Figure became known by his former owner's name, the Justin Morgan horse.
Part of that may be because our sense of taste is slowly dying. Sadly for the rest of us, our physiology is working against us on nearly every front. As we age, our taste buds stop regenerating, and our sense of smell dulls. An average adult taster might have 10,000 taste buds in his or her mouth. A supertasterâone of those 15 to 25 percent of the population whose tongue is extra sensitiveâmight be gifted with twice as many. A non-taster, meanwhile, might have to get by with half the norm.
The taste system consists of 3 types of taste papillae, on which taste buds are located. Fungiform papillae, which are mushroom shaped structures, are located towards the front of the tongue. Each fungiform papillae usually contains 3-5 taste buds. Circumvallate papillae are located towards the back of the tongue, and unlike fungiform papilla, they each contain more than 100 taste buds. The ridges and grooves located along the sides of the tongue are foliate papillae. Like circumvallate papillae, foliate papillae also contain more than 100 taste buds each. A fourth type of papillae, filiform, also exists, but does not contain any taste buds. Each taste bud consists of 30-100 taste receptor cells. Taste receptor cells are long, thin cells oriented perpendicular to the surface of the tongue. One end of the taste each taste receptor cell is exposed to the oral cavity and has microvilli on itâs surface to increase contact with stimuli.