Biology Of The Alien/Xenomorph

Not sure but assuming it is a mechanical hint I'd say breathing/exhaust. All pipes on anything mechanical like this mean intake/exhaust. http://www.motorcycle-parts.are-us.com/mm5/graphics/00000001/yamaha-raider-exhaust-pipes.jpg My question is, the face huger doesn't appear bio-mechanical at all. Purely biological. So at what point of being inside a human does a purely biological creature become mechanical?? My only conclusion is to blend into it's surroundings it took the form we know as the Xenomorph. Facehugger http://www.modelermagic.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/p1010015.jpg Some cool production shots of the Xeno... wish you could have seen its almost human skull face better in the movie.... http://www.therpf.com/f9/giger-alien-sculpt-alien-1979-pic-heavy-22623/

Exhaust for sure... look at a motorcycle. Anything mechanical really.... My question is, since the facehuggers are, or at least appear, purely biological. Why when they lay a Xeno in a human do they come out looking mechanical?? My only guess is that they blend into their surroundings kind of a thing... not really mechanical but trying to imitate the ship where it hides. Some fun production shots of Xeno, wish you could have seen its face better in the movie. http://www.therpf.com/f9/giger-alien-sculpt-alien-1979-pic-heavy-22623/ Biological hugger http://www.modelermagic.com/wordpress/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/p1010015.jpg

[img]http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v234/LT.HIGHTIMES/alienanatomy.jpg[/img]

Since it was designed by Giger we have to assume its all for reproduction !! The alien hide under soft black coal ... and the careless miner is impregnated when he sit for the well deserved lunch . The problem rise when the miner is over 100kg ...then the alien cant rise and die ...however if the miner is over 150kg the alien explode and all the acid kill both .

@ Chesty - I view it more as a bio-mechanical exoskeleton, but more towards the bio. @ Sparky - I never, ever liked that coz its all wrong (check front of skull). Funny but wrong. @ Frantz - Sexual connotations yes (Aliens head/chestburster & egg/Facehuggers underside), but not everything about the Alien is sexual. Miners???

Well here is something on Earth that explains some of the practicality of our double jaw friend the Xenomorphs. Did you know moray eels have two sets of jaws? http://www.destination-scuba.com/Moray-eel.html

Yes its called a pharyngeal jaw, Mantis have something similar.

it was "made in Japan" to explain the Biology of the thing and I agree completely!

Okay next, does anyone have any theories regarding the triangular shaped appendage above the four hose-like dorsal appendages?

Some interesting theories being tossed out there. I remember giger saying the tubes on the back were to help the alien balance its head. But that could have been a production reason to help the actor playing the alien, not a resonbig for the alien character itself. Also I thought the tubes were to help it make those nasty secretions to help build the environment around it, for example the deleted cocooned scene in alien and the hive in aliens.

@RM - Secretions, I always assumed the secretions came from their mouths/maws, they are forever drooling.

Snorkel I've wondered that myself, it seems like quite an excess of tubes on its backside. But sometimes when things are designed, especially creatures, there's no purpose behind the way it looks. The designer may want to make it as unique and odd looking as possible without thinking of thethe purpose forbehind each body part and appenndage.......that's left to the fanboys lol

He added the appendages to give the alien symmetry.Im sure its in the quadrilogy

That fifth triangular one at the base of the neck is perplexing as to a possible purpose.

Snorkel True true on the drooling, but I think using the mouth would take forever to make those secretions, especially building those hive structures. I guess it will forever remain an unsolved mystery..........where's rober stack

It could take a while unless they do it on mass. I've always imagined the hive was created like this... A brood of many aliens, regurgitating and excreting the remains of spent hosts, facehuggers and eggs which they have consumed use their hands, furiously constructing chambers, pits and reliefs, concreting together the discarded offal with the secreted resin from the maws as it hardens.

Actually what your stating is pretty close to the Darkhorse "Aliens Book 1" description, the bones and material used is often those of the xenomorphs of other hives (they really ran with the ant thing)

I remeber there was also an Alien anatomy diagram in the British reprints of american darkhorse comics, there's a box of them from issue 3 to the last one in my attic at my mums place.. not canon, but an interesting thing i remember is that the acid wasn't actually them alien blood, it was an evolved defence mechanism which ran under high pressure between 2 subdermal layers. The backstory was that dissection was achievable through a vat filled with a high alkaline ph solution which has constantly pumped through to avoid concentration getting to high

I did draw my inspiration from there, but thought about it more specifically - Where are all the remains of used hosts, eggs and facehuggers and possibly other dead aliens and the skins discarded when they mature. All that "cr@p" has to go somewhere. Then, taking into account the creature is described as "the perfect organism" I thought of words associated with perfect, such as efficiency and renewable. From that stand point I think Dark Horse got it half right, so I imagined a way to fill in the other half. That said, whose to say someone else doesn't have a better theory. But the dorsal appendages, I don't think that would work.

no no, sorry, wasn't accusing you of plagarism you just jogged my memory was all

I heard that too about the acid. But I think Alien Rez and AVP debunked that, plus theres always the facehugger in Alien. They cut it the knuckle, not much room for 2 subdermal layers there IMO.

now there's a thing, in AVP it removes the Aliens outer shell to create the "shield" generic ripley analogue, but does so without spilling any acid, argument for the defence mechanism hyptohesis?

Possibly, another possibility is that the Predator was taught Alien biology beforehand and knew that the aliens carapace had no connecting blood vessels - supported by the methodically way in which Scar dissected the alien, and from the deleted scene where he causes the inner jaw to extend (funny scene).

that was from the unrated edition? yeah saw that, and as good an explanation as any, those films just annoyed me though.. they were so.. demographic orientated.. but anyway, Alien anatomy, I beleive i remember Giger saying he studied industrial design for a time and applied the principals to designing or refining the creature, so the tubes on the back would have purpose i imagine. did i read that they were part of a sensory arrangement (in a non canon comic source probably) like sharks have in there nose for sensing variances in electrical fields, except external

I suspect electric field sensory would be stored inside the head and be forward facing, not backward facing, from an anatomical point of view.

ah but if you look at radar and sensory equipment on ships they usually mounted on a post for 360 field of detection, and not many people have snuck up on a xenomorph, but like i say that is comic canon, the games cite pheromone detection and am unsure as to what the films say

To date the films say nothing. Regards 360 degree perception, I'll come to that later. Lets look at another aspect of the Alien... In Alien, Alien 3, Alien Resurrection and AVP the aliens featured all have shiny domed carapaces, yet it Aliens and AVPR they have ridged carapaces. Theories anyone?

The dome head was designed to be one big eye, so 360 degree sight is possible

youger vs more mature was the old explanation before resurrection and AVP or drones vs warriors if you want to go to try and mix up everything with everything else (comics, games, films etc etc) from a purely film canon POV i like the mature vs not mature explanantion. thats excluding res and AVP which unfortunately i can't just do because i don't like them..

Heres my theory... The Xenomorph is capable of eradicating an entire ecosystem of its indigenous population with a single egg. This egg, containing a parasite known as the Facehugger, incubating the embryo of a fertile female within, implants the embryo within a suitable host. The embryo develops into a larva known as a Chestburster, from the manner in which it fatally leaves its hosts body. This larval fertile female quickly develops into its immature form, known as the Princess. This Princess, utilising the indigenous population as hosts to incubate embryos via direct implantation, spawns a brood of subservient infertile females, known as Warriors. Once mature, the Warriors begin constructing a Hive. Once the Hive is established, the Princess develops into her mature form, producing an ovipositor from her abdomen, with each laid egg containing a Facehugger, this Queen now incapable of direct implantation. These Facehugger’s incubate the embryos of infertile males, which after gestating within living hosts mature into Drones, gradually replacing the Warriors. Once the hive is complete, the Queen can produce a limited number of prized eggs, the parasites within carrying other fertile female embryos. Incubated within incapacitated hosts the larvae grow into Princesses, who are then forced from the Hive to establish their own.

any views on this?

This is all very good Snork. The AVP movies dabbled in this with disasterous effects. Too complicated and no audience for it. The Alien is a thoroughbred creature with a very simple life cycle but with a massive problem when it comes to survival. It needs another creature to survive. So isolate it and it dies out which means it cannot live on it's own. So when compared with what we understand as evolution it does not fit in. Given that it must, using our logic and what we know of nature, be a by-product of something else.

check my other theories in the "why so ignorant thread". Edit: I see you already have lol.