Americanoid refers to an anthropological theory proposed by the Russian ethnographer Vladimir Jochelson (1855–1937). The theory links the natives of America's Northwest Coast region with the natives of northeastern Siberia, on account of ethnographic and cultural similarities.[1] Although there are unexplained cultural, linguistic, and ethnological similarities between these groups, Jochelson's theory is now discounted by most scholars.
The term is also used to refer to a craniometric phenotype present in human remains associated with Ancient North Eurasian ancestry. Kozintsev (2020) argues that the historical Southern Siberian Okunevo population, which derives most of its ancestry from Ancient North Eurasians and their closest relatives, possesses this "Americanoid" craniometric phenotype, which represents the variation of the first humans in Siberia.[2]