"Prionodon" was denominated and first described by Thomas Horsfield in 1822, based on a linsang from Java. He placed the genus under Prionodontidae, because of similarities to both genera "Viverra" and "Felis". In 1864, John Edward Gray placed the genera "Prionodon" and "Poiana" in the tribe Prionodontina, as part of Viverridae. Reginald Innes Pocock initially followed Gray's classification, but the existence of scent glands in "Poiana" induced him provisionally to regard the latter as a specialized form of "Genetta", its likeness to "Prionodon" being possibly adaptive. Furthermore, the skeletal anatomy of Asiatic linsangs are said to be a mosaic of features of other viverrine-like mammals, with as linsangs share cranial, postcranial and dental similarities with falanoucs, African palm civet, and oyans respectively.