Asiatic linsang

Asiatic linsang
Temporal range: Middle Miocene–Present
Spotted linsang (Prionodon pardicolor)
Scientific classification Edit this classification
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Chordata
Class: Mammalia
Order: Carnivora
Family: Prionodontidae
Horsfield, 1822
Subfamily: Prionodontinae
Gray, 1864
Genus: Prionodon
Horsfield, 1822
Species

The Asiatic linsang (Prionodon) is a genus with two species, the banded linsang (Prionodon linsang) and the spotted linsang (Prionodon pardicolor). They are native to southeast Asia:

DNA analysis on 29 species showed that Prionodon was the sister-group of the family Felidae. So the Asiatic linsangs are put in a family of their own, the Prionodontidae. Prionodon is not closely related to the African linsangs, although they look similar, and live a similar life. They are small cat-like carnivores adapted to catching small prey among the trees of a tropical forest. The similarities between the two groups came about by convergent evolution.

Prionodon is basal to the Feliformia and a sister taxon of the Felidae.

References

  1. ↑ Pocock R.I. 1939. 'The fauna of British India, including Ceylon and Burma. Mammalia. – Volume 1. Taylor and Francis, London, 334–342.
  2. ↑ Gaubert P. and Veron G. 2003. Exhaustive sample set among Viverridae reveals the sister-group of felids: the linsangs as a case of extreme morphological convergence within Feliformia Archived 2020-01-25 at the Wayback Machine. Proceedings of the Royal Society, Series B, 270 (1532): 2523–2530. doi:10.1098/rspb.2003.2521
  3. ↑ Barycka E. 2007. Evolution and systematics of the feliform Carnivora. Mammalian Biology. 72: 257–282.