Humanoid
A humanoid (/ˈhjuːmənɔɪd/; from English human and -oid "resembling") is a non-human entity with human form or characteristics. By the 20th century, the term came to describe fossils which were morphologically similar, but not identical, to those of the human skeleton.[1]
For other uses, see Humanoid (disambiguation).Although this usage was common in the sciences for much of the 20th century, it is now considered rare.[1] More generally, the term can refer to anything with distinctly human characteristics or adaptations, such as possessing opposable anterior forelimb-appendages (i.e. thumbs), visible spectrum-binocular vision (i.e. having two eyes), or biomechanic plantigrade-bipedalism (i.e. the ability to walk on heels and metatarsals in an upright position). Humanoids may also include human-animal hybrids (where each cell has partly human and partly animal genetic contents) and human-animal chimeras (where some cells are human and some cells are animal in origin).[2] Science fiction media frequently present sentient extraterrestrial lifeforms as humanoid as a byproduct of convergent evolution.
In ufology[edit]
In the field of ufology, humanoid refers to any of the claimed extraterrestrials which abduct human victims, such as the Greys,[16] the Reptilians,[17] Nordics, and Martians.