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The xenomorph is a deadly fictional monster from the Alien universe, designed by the Swiss painter H. R. Giger. The word xenomorph itself merely means "alien (life)form".
Characteristics
Xenomorphs are roughly humanoid with a skeletal or insectoid appearance. They have an elongated, cylindrical head with no eyes and a secondary jaw which can extend from the mouth, all inside in a black exoskeleton.
Their prehensile tail has a sharp stinger at the end and their claws are sharp. Their blood is highly acidic.
Xenomorphs can produce a thick, strong resin, used to cocoon victims and build dens.
Socially, they are hive-minded and ruled by a queen. They reproduce as parasitoids, and grow to full size very rapidly.
They are quick and agile, and can run along ceilings and walls. They can survive in extreme temperatures, are well-adapted to swimming, and can survive in a vacuum.
Their movement tends to be silent, and they do not radiate heat as their exoskeletal temperature matches ambient temperature. They salivate profusely, and are extremely aggressive and persistent, while being nearly fearless. This is all combined with what seems to be an intelligence, especially exhibited by the queen.
Life cycle
Egg
The egg is the xenomorph's first stage, and it remains dormant within until the approach of potential prey, possibly by motion, vision or other unknown means. It is unknown exactly how long an egg can remain functional, but it is probably similar to a plant seed and well beyond the life-span of humans. The egg is also very large, being somewhere in the range of 2.5 feet high. The egg hatches in the manner of flower unfurling its petals, sometimes becoming transparent. The eggs appear to have indefinite lifespans in almost any environmnet.
Facehugger
After hatching from the egg, the creature has the rough appearance of a large tan spider with a tail resemblinga human vertebral column. In this form, the alien's purpose is to find an appropriate host in which to lay an embryo.
When an appropriate host has been found, the facehugger, as its name implies, attempts to grab onto its victim's head. Once attached, it quickly renders the host into a comatose-like state and seems to glue its legs in a locked position. An implantation tube is inserted the victim through which it is fed oxygen, nutrients, possibly sedatives and the parasitic zygote is implanted into the chest cavity. Once impregnated with the seed, the facehugger drops off and soon dies. The process of impregnation takes several hours.
Zygote/Gestate/Seed
The parasitic developmental stage of the xenomorph. Once free from the sedative effects of the facehugger stage, the host regains consciousness and seems normal. The exception being their entry into a hypermetabolic state, akin to pregnancy. The gestate feeds off the host's metabolism increasing his total metabolic turnover.
It is also possible that the parasite secretes hormones increasing the hosts strength, perception, emotional wellbeing; all these effects furthering the survival of the host until 'birth'. Hosts are unable to commit suicide or directly cause intentional self harm. In addition adult aliens will not attack hosts, and if will even protect them, often by encasing them in cocoons within the hive. This may also be a tactic to lure potential hosts into the hive for ambush.
The length of gestation appears to be dependent on several factors including host health, trauma to the host, and the amount of nutrients supplied to the host. It can be as short as half-an-hour from regaining consciousness to several days or weeks.
Chestburster
Once it gestation is complete, the parasite proceeds to chew through the host until it emerges from the upper torso, in spectacularly sudden and gory fashion, thusly earning its name. This is extremely painful and fatal to the host. At this point the alien resembles an insect larva and is only about two feet long. If in the presence of hostile lifeforms it hides as soon as possible, as it is quite vulnerable at this stage. If in a protected environment, the host's dead body provides a food source for the larvae, accelerating its maturity. Regardless, a chestburster only needs a few hours to grow to its full size.
Adult
Roughly eight feet tall, this is the xenomorph once it reaches its full state of maturity. Aliens are born to a specific caste (Queen, Drone etc.), no further post-maturity progression is known to occur.
Classes of xenomorphs
Queen
The mother of an alien colony, the queen is much larger and more intelligent than standard xenomorphs. She is first seen attached to a large eggsac, but she is able to break free of it when agitated or endangered. Besides from the difference in size, the queen is also covered with thicker armour, has a much larger cranium, and has two extra sets of arms.
Drone
The standard Xenomorph adult, they take on the duties of maintaining the hive. This includes building/defending the colony and securing potential hosts.
In the original draft of Aliens, the drone was a small albino xenomorph which served as a constant attendant to the queen and her eggs.
Praetorian
A royal guard to the queen. Praetorians are larger than standard adults, but still only about 1/2 the size of the queen herself. Praetorians are not in the alien movies and many fans do not consider them canon.
Variations
The Alien has been portrayed in noticeably different ways throughout the films. Much of this is due to the technology and techniques used to bring it to life.
Body shape
In the movie Alien, it was portrayed as a rather bulky creature by an actor in a large costume. By the time of Alien: Resurrection, they were depicted as much faster, more slender creatures created by computer-generated imagery.
Head shape
In Aliens the xenomorph was depicted as having ridges along its cranium. In all other movies though, it was shown with a smooth head.
Fingers
The original xenomorph had six fingers, whereas the ones in the sequel had three.
Debate
DNA assimilation
Many believe that chestbursters, while still in an embryonic stage, use the host's DNA to augment its own and acquire any positive traits that the host garnered through natural selection. This makes sense from an evolutionary standpoint, since the host is adapted to its environment, taking on some of its characteristics would further adapt the newborn alien to its new environment. This would essentially make all adult xenomorphs hybrid creatures. This idea was used in some novel and comic book spin-offs. Another explanation could be that since the eggs seem to be produced asexually, the embryo receives some of its chromosomes from its host to allow for biodiversity of the species.
Alien 3 furthered this by having an alien embryo implanted into a dog. The xenomorphs of the first two films were all implanted in humans, and thus could walk in a bipedal formation; they also had foot-long spikes on their backs. The "dog-alien" of Alien 3 was visually very different from these, because it took on some of the DNA of its canine host. It appeared and moved in a somewhat panther-like way, did not have spikes on its back, was far more streamlined in appearance, and ran incredibly fast on four legs, rarely standing on two.
The xenomorphs of fourth Alien film were something of an exception, because they were far more human-like, to the point that the Alien Queen gave live birth to a "human-alien Hybrid": this was all because these aliens were created as the result of cloning experiments by the military, and were not the "true" form of the species, having admittedly been spliced with much human DNA. However, this was not as a result of the normal implantation-DNA assimilation process.
In various comics and the "Alien vs. Predator" video game series, this is taken a step further when a xenomorph embryo is implanted into a Yautja (Predator); the result is an Alien with Predator characteristics, a "Pred-alien". This hybrid stood on two legs, and had the basic body-outline of a Predator, having lost the elongated head shape. It also lacked the inner set of jaws characteristic of other xenomorphs, but sported a set of mandibles reminiscent of those of the Predator.
Caste/cowl
Many fans believe that the difference between the original alien from the first movie and the swarm in the second is that of a soldier alien vs. drone aliens and that the colony contains both. Others believe that there is no soldier/drone caste and that standard adults are suitable to do all needed tasks.
Most of this debate is due to the variances between the two xenomorph designs in the first and second movie, primarily the issue of the cowl. Other popular theories are that the xenomorph sheds its cowl after further maturity (xenomorphs in all movies but the second were less than three days old) or that it was simply a design choice for Aliens that had no actual significant meaning.
Endoskeleton
Some believe that the xenomorph contains an endoskeleton as well as an exoskeleton. The primary fuel for this debate is the xenomorph skull seen as a trophy in the movie Predator 2.
Theories
According to the computer game Alien vs. Predator 2, xenomorphs utilize ultrasound for relatively long-distance communication. Xenomorph hives are built with smooth, rounded edges instead of rough, sharp edges because sound propagates better in such an environment. The skulls of xenomorphs act as sonic amplifiers for both boosting the transmission of messages and ensuring that incoming messages remain audible. This theory correlates with the Queen's massive head, since administrative duties would require greater transmission/receiving strength than normal xenomorphs.
The origins of the xenomorphs have never been fully explained in the films, but the expanded Alien literature has stated that the xenomorphs are bio-weapons genetically engineered by an ancient race called the "Space Jockeys". Little is known of this race except that they are purported to have created the xenomorphs to fight an ancient war. Alien eggs would be used as "bombs" on an enemy planet and then the xenomorphs would proceed to kill the entire population as they spawned. The xenomorphs were then genetically designed to die off, however eventually mutated and thrived even after killing their prey. The Space Jockeys were then killed by their own creations until none remained. A single member of the Space Jockey race escaped in a bio-weapons ship full of xenomorph eggs, but was himself infected with a xenomorph and died aboard. This is, presumably, the dead alien seen by the crew of the Nostromo.
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