Is it really a Xenomorph?

My Theory on how the eggs got in the Derelict cargo hold:

Realizing the potential weapon the xenomorphs could be, the engineers sent several juggernauts to LV 226 to collect specimens.

Once they successfully collected the specimens (Queens, eggs, drones) they set of to another research facility.

Unfortunately, a solar flare from a nearby star hit several of the juggernauts and they landed on different planets including LV 426.

My theory allows for several planets to be infested by Xenomorphs.

I hope you like my theories, I got another one coming up ;)

Movie Fan - one issue.  The mural you refer to in Prometheus depicts Facehuggers as well. There is a backstory none of us know.  The Engineers knew about the Xenomorph, the Facehugger, etc.  The mural almost resembles worship.  

But that aside, I liked your post. 

I like your theory Movie fan.

I suppose that the mural from prometheus depicts a xenomorph like creature emerging from the black goo, to me it looks like a deacon.

SOME SPOILERS BELOW THE IMAGE

If I remember correctly in Alien: covenant when David was explaining to the crew of the covenant he said that the black goo is capable of mutating living beings or using them as an incubator for hybridized predators (depending on the host) like the ones they encontered (Neomorphs).

At the end of the film David places few facehugger embryos among humans embryos to continue his experimenting, which means that sometime in the future sequels he might create the biomechanical version of the xenomorph that we all know and love, the organic and feral ones we've seen in AC might just be David's first successful attempt at creating life, all he needs to do is improve it.

When the movie ended I sat through half of the credits and saw that Goran D. Kleut has been credited as both Neomorph and the XENOMORPH, not Protomorph.

Thats my assumption.

How do you explain the age of the derelict spacecraft and the amount of decay and condition it was found in? It appeared to be ancient yet it has xeno eggos.

I believe that the two "big shaps" we see in Covenant are in fact Protomorphs (yet awesome)as they lack biomechanical charactetistics. The classic biomechanical xenomorph we see in Alien is yet to be "invented", maybe by David or by accident.

Another thing about the derelict in Alien is that it differs quite much in interior from the Juggernought in Prometheus and Covenant. It apears to be much more biomechanical. It would be very interesting to get to know why that is...

Seemingly the term "xenomorph" appears to be used as the term "dog" would be. The ones in this movie would be the poodle and the ones from Alien 1979 would be a Labrador (cuz you know, they're the best)- but both are "dogs".

2 different creatures but both xenomorphs.

The neomorph as explained is a product of accelerant infection hence the different name, kind of like a different species, so not a "dog" or "xenomorph", but rather something else entirely or some such (maybe call this one a "cat").

After one of you said the mural showed face huggers, I still have the same theory but different events:

The Deacon Grows or mutates into a Queen/Mother and starts laying eggs (That already have facehuggers in them) then when the Covenant crashes or lands on LV 226 the Deacon/Queen/Mother kills and eats one of David's creations and That is how the Xenomorph becomes Bio-mechanical.

(It's the same theory, but no Hammerpedes)

Newsflash: David lies. He also gets confused about things (Byron vs Shelley). He has a tomb for Shaw he went to lengths to create in the garden, but her body's lying on a slab in his lair. He's not a reliable source of info. He also spent years on the Juggernaut "learning" the "ways" of the Engineers. The Engineers' technology is biomechanical. Their ships are biomechanical. Their spacesuits are biomechanical. The "biomechanical" Xenomorph is found in an ancient Engineer ship (that's biomechanical). Engineers created the classic Xeno. David likely "learned" of it in studying them and sought to emulate it, tweaking the original design to produce something more organic. He's trying to be a great 'creator", but the irony is that he can't do anything truly original. He can only emulate what organic beings have created.