Timeline for Is the Xenomorph life cycle based on the life cycle of a real world species?
Current License: CC BY-SA 3.0
32 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Feb 7, 2018 at 20:50 | history | edited | Praxis |
edited tags
|
|
| May 21, 2017 at 15:10 | history | edited | Gallifreyan |
edited tags
|
|
| May 21, 2017 at 14:52 | answer | added | Ortegon | timeline score: 1 | |
| Aug 11, 2015 at 14:48 | comment | added | kaay | @paul Thankfully, we do not exit the 'child' phase while leaving behind an intact, clingy, still-breathing dying child along with our milk teeth. No, this is more akin to the ants - same DNA, specialised results - now imagine that many eggs are born in conjugated pairs. Worker matures fast, and knows it exists for the sake of the dormant warrior egg. | |
| S Aug 6, 2015 at 21:46 | history | bounty ended | Wad Cheber | ||
| S Aug 6, 2015 at 21:46 | history | notice removed | Wad Cheber | ||
| Aug 6, 2015 at 21:46 | vote | accept | Wad Cheber | ||
| Aug 6, 2015 at 8:35 | comment | added | Paul D. Waite | Christ, I hope not. | |
| Aug 6, 2015 at 8:08 | answer | added | Wad Cheber | timeline score: 2 | |
| Aug 5, 2015 at 22:58 | answer | added | Broklynite | timeline score: 0 | |
| S Aug 5, 2015 at 21:41 | history | bounty started | Wad Cheber | ||
| S Aug 5, 2015 at 21:41 | history | notice added | Wad Cheber | Reward existing answer | |
| Aug 5, 2015 at 11:19 | vote | accept | Wad Cheber | ||
| Aug 6, 2015 at 21:46 | |||||
| Aug 5, 2015 at 7:52 | comment | added | Paul | @kaay: But we discard dead body parts every day. As children our milk teeth fall out, the death of the nerve sells and tissue involved in their generation, skin cells die en mass (it takes about 30 days for our whole epidermis to regenerate). | |
| Aug 5, 2015 at 7:47 | comment | added | Paul | Another consideration is that less than 1% of our DNA separates us from fishes or even plankton. So a slight modification to the DNA (if it actually uses DNA) could be an acceptable genetic possiblity to explain the actual different organisms, which in the case of the alien movie are: the alien, the egg and the facehugger (i.e. not the queen, facehugger, chest-ripper and final alien). The queen is really a chemically altered alien (like the difference between worker, queen and soldier ants, or gorilla and silver back), as the alien is simply a grown-up version of the chest-ripper. | |
| Aug 4, 2015 at 20:37 | comment | added | Wad Cheber | @PieterB - I've seen the first two movies at least 10 times, and I never got the impression that the Facehuggers were inserting themselves and leaving behind an empty shell. In the first movie, they dissect the facehugger and it has bones, organs, and blood. It dies after it lays the egg, but that isn't particularly unusual in many species, especially among invertebrates. Plenty of species die either immediately or shortly after reproducing. Male mantises die while reproducing. As I see it, Facehuggers carry eggs, but they aren't eggs themselves. | |
| Aug 4, 2015 at 20:27 | comment | added | Todd Wilcox | If one encountered facehuggers and xenomorphs separately, one might wonder if they were related species because they do both have acid for blood, and although it's not specifically stated in the movies, it does seem to be identical blood and type of acid. So that is a notable similarity between them. So there is at least one way in which facehuggers resemble xenomorphs. | |
| Aug 4, 2015 at 16:24 | comment | added | Paul | I think it is worth mentioning that, despite the non-muddying of waters, the egg itself appears to be some form of autonomous creature (i.e. it opens itself, not by the influence of the facehugger within etc). As for the classes of creature which do this on earth, then caterpillars to butterflies?... | |
| Aug 4, 2015 at 14:15 | comment | added | kaay | A somewhat missed point that doesn't allow Cnidaria and flukes as perfect comparisons, is that they don't discard what seems to be a perfectly complete and living individual to die while proceeding with their life cycle. It's as though molting involved not just a new outer layer, but a new set of organs, parts of the brain included. | |
| Aug 4, 2015 at 10:53 | comment | added | Pieter B | Have you considered that the facehugger doesn't insert an egg, but actually inserts itself and leaving the outer (face hugging) shell of the creature? | |
| Aug 4, 2015 at 10:30 | answer | added | Overmind | timeline score: 1 | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 21:50 | history | edited | Wad Cheber | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 1023 characters in body
|
| Aug 3, 2015 at 21:41 | answer | added | Praxis | timeline score: 40 | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 20:55 | history | tweeted | twitter.com/#!/StackSciFi/status/628308161292828673 | ||
| Aug 3, 2015 at 20:48 | answer | added | Hypnosifl | timeline score: 17 | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 20:47 | answer | added | Omegacron | timeline score: 12 | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 19:36 | comment | added | Wad Cheber | I think the question would be closed as off topic if I asked "Are there any real world species with a life cycle similar to that of the xenomorphs?", but that is really what I had in mind when I asked the question. | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 19:35 | comment | added | Wad Cheber | @Hypnosifl - I'd upvote that if you made it an answer. | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 19:30 | comment | added | Hypnosifl | How about this? Alternation of Generation and Exceptions in Cnidaria--"Alternation of generations is a type of life cycle that switches between two forms, the asexual polyp and the sexual medusa. Each reproduction, one form will give rise to the other. For example, a polyp will go through asexual reproduction to produce medusae and vice versa with sexual reproduction among medusae." I don't know of any evidence that Ridley Scott or any of the Alien script writers were inspired by this particular organism though. | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 19:20 | history | edited | Wad Cheber | CC BY-SA 3.0 |
added 280 characters in body
|
| Aug 3, 2015 at 19:15 | comment | added | Wad Cheber | @SJuan76 - I don't think so. According to the description of the wasp's life cycle, a normal adult wasp lays eggs which eventually turn into normal adult wasps. Nothing like the facehugger there. | |
| Aug 3, 2015 at 19:08 | history | asked | Wad Cheber | CC BY-SA 3.0 |