Humanoid

[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).

[4] Simon Conway Morris counters this argument, arguing that convergence is a dominant force in evolution and that since the same environmental and physical constraints act on all life, there is an "optimum" body plan that life will inevitably evolve toward, with evolution bound to stumble upon intelligence, a trait of primates, crows, and dolphins, at some point.

[5] In 1982, Dale Russell, curator of vertebrate fossils at the National Museum of Canada in Ottawa, conjectured a possible evolutionary path that might have been taken by the dinosaur Troodon had it not perished in the Cretaceous–Paleogene extinction event 66 million years ago, suggesting that it could have evolved into intelligent beings similar in body plan to humans, becoming a humanoid of dinosaur origin.

[6] Russell had discovered the first Troodontid skull, and noted that, while its EQ was low compared to humans, it was six times higher than that of other dinosaurs.

Gregory S. Paul (1988) and Thomas R. Holtz, Jr., consider it "suspiciously human" (Paul, 1988) and Darren Naish has argued that a large-brained, highly intelligent troodontid would retain a more standard theropod body plan, with a horizontal posture and long tail, and would probably manipulate objects with the snout and feet in the manner of a bird, rather than with human-like "hands".

A fragment by the Greek poet Xenophanes describes this tendency, ...Men make gods in their own image; those of the Ethiopians are black and narrow-nosed, those of the Thracians have blue eyes and red hair.

With regard to extraterrestrials in fiction, the term humanoid is most commonly used to refer to alien beings with a body plan that is generally like that of a human, including upright stance and bipedalism, as well as intelligence.

[12] An opposing view is given by Mike Wall, who argues that intelligent extraterrestrials able to contact Humans would most likely have reached a phase allowing them to develop themselves into machines.

One of the more common is that the humanoids in the story have evolved on an Earth-like planet or natural satellite, totally independently from Humans on Earth.

[15] 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.

In fantasy settings the term humanoid is used to refer to a human-like fantastical creature, such as a dwarf, elf, gnome, halfling, goblin, troll, orc or an ogre, and Bigfoot.