@JsonTypeInfo(use = JsonTypeInfo.Id.NAME, include = As.PROPERTY, property = "_name")
@JsonSubTypes({@Type(value = Lion.class, name = "lion"), @Type(value = Elephant.class, name = "elephant")})
public abstract class Animal {...}

public class Zoo {
    List<Animal> animals;
}

{"animals":[{"_name":"lion"},{"_name":"elephant"}]}

{"animals":[{"_name":"lion"},{"_name":"elephant"},{"_name":"Turtle"}]}

List<Animal> animals = Lists.newArrayList(lion, elephant);
Zoo zoo = new Zoo(animals);
ObjectMapper mapper = new ObjectMapper();
String zooString = mapper.writeValueAsString(zoo);

Zoo zooDeserialized = mapper.readValue(zooString, Zoo.class);

Exception in thread "main" com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException: Could not resolve type id 'Turtle' into a subtype of [simple type, class mypackage.Animal]
 at [Source: N/A; line: -1, column: -1] (through reference chain: mypackage.Zoo["animals"])
 at com.fasterxml.jackson.databind.JsonMappingException.from(JsonMappingException.java:164)
..