Proto-Mongoloid

Proto-Mongoloid is an outdated racial classification of human beings based on a now-disproven theory of biological race. In anthropological theories of the 19th and 20th centuries, proto-Mongoloids were seen as the ancestors of the Mongoloid race.

Notable examples of fossils that were formerly thought to belong to the proto-Mongoloid group are found in Late Pleistocene (Upper Paleolithic) fossils, notably the Minatogawa skeletons and the Liujiang crania.

Morphological characteristics
Professor of anthropology, Akazawa Takeru (赤沢威) at the International Research Center for Japanese Studies, Kyoto, said that there were Neo-Mongoloids and Paleo-Mongoloids. Akazawa said Neo-Mongoloids have "extreme Mongoloid, cold-adapted features" and they included the Chinese, Buryats, Eskimo and Chukchi. In contrast, Akazawa said Paleo-Mongoloids are less cold-adapted. He said Burmese, Filipinos, Polynesians, Jōmon and the indigenous peoples of the Americas were Paleo-Mongoloid.