The African linsangs also known as oyans are two species classified in the

mammal Mammals () are a group of vertebrate animals constituting the class Mammalia (), characterized by the presence of mammary glands which in females produce milk for feeding (nursing) their young, a neocortex (a region of the brain), fur or ...

ian

subfamily In biological classification, a subfamily (Latin: ', plural ') is an auxiliary (intermediate) taxonomic rank, next below family but more inclusive than genus. Standard nomenclature rules end subfamily botanical names with "-oideae", and zoologi ...

Viverrinae The Viverrinae represent the largest subfamily within the Viverridae comprising five genera, which are subdivided into 22 species native to Africa and Southeast Asia. This subfamily was denominated and first described by John Edward Gray in 1864 ...

, in the family

Viverridae Viverridae is a family of small to medium-sized, feliform mammals. The viverrids () comprise 33 species placed in 14 genera. This family was named and first described by John Edward Gray in 1821. Viverrids occur all over Africa, southern Europe, ...

. There is one genus, ''Poiana''. The name ''linsang'' is from Javanese ''linsang'' or ''wlinsang'', which used to be wrongly translated as "

otter Otters are carnivorous mammals in the subfamily Lutrinae. The 13 extant otter species are all semiaquatic, aquatic, or marine, with diets based on fish and invertebrates. Lutrinae is a branch of the Mustelidae family, which also includes wea ...

" in English dictionaries. Linsangs are nocturnal, generally solitary tree dwellers. They are carnivorous, eating squirrels and other rodents, small birds, lizards and insects. Typical size is a little over 30 cm (1 foot), with a tail that more than doubles that length. Bodies are long, with short legs, giving a low appearance. Both species have yellowish bodies with black markings (stripes, blotches and spots), though the distribution and nature of the markings varies between the two species.

Taxonomy

The genus ''Poiana'' was erected by

John Edward Gray John Edward Gray, FRS (12 February 1800 – 7 March 1875) was a British zoologist. He was the elder brother of zoologist George Robert Gray and son of the pharmacologist and botanist Samuel Frederick Gray (1766–1828). The same is used for ...

in a paper read at the 8 November 1864 meeting of the

Zoological Society of London The Zoological Society of London (ZSL) is a charity devoted to the worldwide conservation of animals and their habitats. It was founded in 1826. Since 1828, it has maintained the London Zoo, and since 1931 Whipsnade Park. History On 29 ...

and published the following year, in the ''

Proceedings of the Zoological Society of London The ''Journal of Zoology'' is a scientific journal concerning zoology, the study of animals. It was founded in 1830 by the Zoological Society of London and is published by Wiley-Blackwell. It carries original research papers, which are targeted ...

'' relating to 1864. In accordance with Article 8 of the

ICZN The International Code of Zoological Nomenclature (ICZN) is a widely accepted convention in zoology that rules the formal scientific naming of organisms treated as animals. It is also informally known as the ICZN Code, for its publisher, the I ...

Code In communications and information processing, code is a system of rules to convert information—such as a letter, word, sound, image, or gesture—into another form, sometimes shortened or secret, for communication through a communication ...

, the correct author citation is "Gray, 1865". Both

linsang The linsangs are four species of tree-dwelling carnivorous mammals. The name of these species originated in the Javanese language as ''linsang'' or ''wlinsang'', and previously, was translated incorrectly in English dictionaries as " otter". T ...

genera (''Poiana'' and the Asian ''

Prionodon The Asiatic linsang (''Prionodon'') is a genus comprising two species native to Southeast Asia: the banded linsang (''Prionodon linsang'') and the spotted linsang (''Prionodon pardicolor''). ''Prionodon'' is considered a sister taxon of the Fel ...

'') were formerly placed in the subfamily

(of Viverridae), along with several other genera, but recent research suggests that their actual relationships may be somewhat different; a 2020 checklist places them instead in the subfamily

Genettinae Genettinae is a subfamily of the feliform viverrids. It contains all of the genet species (genus '' Genetta'') and the oyan The African linsangs also known as oyans are two species classified in the mammalian subfamily Viverrinae, in the ...

. The linsangs are remarkable for their morphological resemblance to

cat The cat (''Felis catus'') is a domestic species of small carnivorous mammal. It is the only domesticated species in the family Felidae and is commonly referred to as the domestic cat or house cat to distinguish it from the wild members of ...

s, family

Felidae Felidae () is the family of mammals in the order Carnivora colloquially referred to as cats, and constitutes a clade. A member of this family is also called a felid (). The term "cat" refers both to felids in general and specifically to the ...

, which is greater than in the other viverrids. As the relationship between linsangs and cats was thought to be rather distant (the two groups belonging to different families within the superfamily

Feliformia Feliformia is a suborder within the order Carnivora consisting of "cat-like" carnivorans, including cats (large and small), hyenas, mongooses, viverrids, and related taxa. Feliformia stands in contrast to the other suborder of Carnivora, Caniform ...

), this was considered an example of

convergent evolution Convergent evolution is the independent evolution of similar features in species of different periods or epochs in time. Convergent evolution creates analogous structures that have similar form or function but were not present in the last com ...

. However, DNA analysis indicates that while the African linsangs (''Poiana'') are true viverrids closely related to the genets, the Asiatic linsangs (''Prionodon'') are not and may instead be the closest living relatives of the family

.Gaubert, P. and G. Veron (2003)
Exhaustive sample set among Viverridae reveals the sister-group of felids: the linsangs as a case of extreme morphological convergence within Feliformia.
Proceedings of the Royal Society London Biological Sciences 270: 2523–2530. The similarities between Asiatic linsangs and cats are thus more likely to be due to common ancestry, while the similarities between the two genera of linsangs must be convergent. The species of African linsangs are: *''Poiana leightoni'' - West African oyan *''Poiana richardsonii'' -

Central African oyan The Central African oyan (''Poiana richardsonii''), also called Central African linsang, is a linsang species native to Central Africa. Characteristics The Central African oyan's body is slender and long, with an elongated head and a pointed m ...

References

Viverrids Taxa named by John Edward Gray {{carnivora-stub