The T Ocellus and Vincent Ward's sheep xeno

I have no idea why it took me this long to make the comparison but I have a suspicion the sheep the Ocellus takes over is loosely inspired by Vincent Ward's Wooden Planet. In that version a flock of sheep are infected if you will by the xenomorph and produce this hideous variant. It's simultaneously the least scary xenomorph and the most terrifying sheep in one bizarre package. It's nothing new for Alien (or any long running franchise) to look to the past and draw upon unused concepts. The idea of spores that infect a host as seen in Alien Covenant was no doubt inspired by William Gibson's Alien 3. Even the Union of Progressive Peoples have made their way into the extended universe. So did Noah Hawley draw from Vincent Ward's Alien 3? Maybe not. Could just be a coincidence but it's certainly not the first time a sheep and a hostile alien species have met in this universe.