17. Proposed ancestral types - Speculations about the alien species (Movies: Alien)
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This article is from the Alien Movies FAQ, by Darryll Hobsonand Eelko de Vos E.W.C.deVos@TWI.TUDelft.NL with numerous contributions by others.
17. Proposed ancestral types - Speculations about the alien species (Movies: Alien)
Presumably, organisms which use these strategies still live on the
homeworld.
Early ancestor: a non-social creature with a multi-stage life cycle.
Most stages of this life cycle are omnivorous. This is a very primitive
version of the organism.
Natural host: The natural host might be any large mobile creature,
or it might be some sort of immobile vegetative organism.
Life cycle: Eggs are created in large clutches, perhaps buried in the
ground or perhaps attached to vegetative organisms via resin. This resin
might also serve to protect the eggs from predation. After a long
maturation phase, these eggs hatch and larvae emerge. These are free
living organisms in their own right, devoted to finding food and potential
hosts. Possessed of advanced sensory capabilities, these creatures are
capable of producing many pro-embryos. The eggs of this species would
be little more than containers, possessing no sensory apparatus and
probably opening upon the signal of the larva. These larvae locate and
produce pro-embryos on putative hosts. These pro-embryos digest
whatever available food there is to be found on their substrate; the food
might be other surface parasites or vegetative matter or secreted
substances. These pro-embryos would be capable of moving between
hosts, and some in some "vegetative" species might serve in a "cross-
pollinating" capacity. In more advanced forms, the pro-embryos might live
in the host digestive system, feeding off of partially digested nutrients.
Once a sufficient level of nutrition has been achieved, the embryo
metamorphoses into a nymph and becomes a free living organism.
Progression through of a series of predatory instars yields the imago,
which serves the sole purpose of creating more eggs.
Comments: There are a variety of lifecycle and lifestyle strategies
which may be derived from this organism. There are probably a variety of
different species descended from this general form. The imago is the fully
adult form of the organism, having spent all of its instars searching for
food. As with the pro-embryo, this food might be both vegetative or
"animal" in nature.
Medial ancestor: a non-social predatory creature with a dual stage
life cycle. This type of creature is perhaps on the verge of developing into
the modern organism.
Natural host: The natural host is a large creature that breathes
atmosphere through a single orifice on the end of an armored stalk.
Airflow through this stalk is maintained by expanding and contracting the
walls of the stalk, possibly via peristaltic waves.
Life cycle: Thick-hided and perhaps armored eggs are buried in the
ground and are mortared in place with resin. The eggs mature and enter the
dormant phase. The motion and sound of a proximal potential host signals
the egg to hatch and disgorge the larva which pursues, catches and
"boards" the host. In this organism, the larva's sole purpose is to locate and
implant an embryo into a host as quickly as is possible. Its sensory
apparatus are devoted to this task alone, and because it does not take
nutrition, it can only afford to implant a few embryos; in many cases it can
only manage one. The egg retains a modest ability for detection and
controls the release of the larva. The larva then locates the breathing
orifice, affixes itself to it via means of the legs and tail and supplements
the air flow to the host during the implantation phase. The embryo is
implanted in the internal substance of the breathing canal. Once
implantation is complete, the larva dies. The host proceeds, until the
nymph emerges from its "breathing trunk" via the natural orifice. The host
most likely survives this ordeal, although it might experience labored
breathing for a few days. The nymph goes through a series of instars ,
which hunt for food, until an imago is realized, which hunts for food,
mates and prospective host ranges. The mouthed tongue might be integral
to all three pursuits, as well as protecting the adults form implantation by
larvae of other species. Putative hosts might be weakened by use of the
mouthed tongue, making them more susceptible to being boarded by the
larva. A series of eggs might be created in a large area, waiting for a
weakened host to stumble through. Possibly, the adults are capable of
cucooning themselves and or severely weakened hosts with resin in order
to protect against predation.
Comments: The eggs and larvae of this species appear intermediate
in that they share the responsibilities of host detection and selection. This
suggests that the larva and egg are a single continuous organism in this
species and that sensory organs are shared or duplicated between the two
parts.
Immediate ancestor: a predatory social creature, possibly smaller
than the medial ancestral type. This is the organism which immediately
predated the modern organism.
Natural host: a smaller version of the ancestor's host, or a similar
smaller creature.
Life cycle: A fertile queen creates thick hided eggs in a protected
creche. These are guarded and tended by various castes of adult relatives.
The nest is created and maintained by the adults and is constructed from
secreted resin. The adults procure hosts from outside the nest and
immobilize them near mature eggs. The eggs open and the larva
immediately attach to the host. Larval energy usage is almost totally
devoted to adhering to the host and implanting a single embryo. The large
eggs contain most of the important sensory and decision making
apparatus, leaving the larvae as "stripped down" as is possible.
Implantation and gestation occur as in the medial ancestor, but the nymph
tears its way out of the host body. Unless it is sufficiently large, the host
likely expires in the emergence. The nymph develops into an imago via a
series of instars, which might perform particular duties required by the
nest according to their age or caste.
Comments: Queens display at least six limbs, and an additional
pair of hind limbs are required to support the ovarian organ systems.
Queens have a greater number of limbs, digits and dorsal vanes than are
observed in various adult forms, and thus may represent a most advanced
instar form. If this is the case, the various observed forms may represent
different instar stages of adult development, and each of these might
correspond to a different caste. A nymph which found it self isolated from
a nest, or in a nest sans a functional queen, might develop rapidly through
a series of instars (which would only be of use in a functional nest) and
into a queen-imago which could then begin the egg creating process and
re-establish control of a leaderless nest. A queen in a functioning nest
would suppress this development in all other individuals, halting their
development at the penultimate imago stage. This could be accomplished
via a special queen-produced chemical signal which causes the destruction
of adult canopies. A lone imago metamorphosing into a queen-imago
might require a period of hibernation as it develops the morphological
characteristics of a queen: the auxiliary ventral arms, large headpiece
sheath and externalized ovarian systems with associated legs. In this case,
the adult canopy might be the source of the developmental signals which
trigger the transformation, and would develop into the sheath.
The queen-imago is a form devoted to producing large numbers of
eggs in a short amount of time. Presumably, this form is a novel
development which is specific to the social species. It might be that imago
form retains the ability to create eggs at a much lower rate and at much
greater expense to itself (See Appendix A). This would require an override
of the natural inclination for canopied imago forms to develop into queen-
imagoes, and would probably only occur under periods of extreme stress
when the nutritional requirements of metamorphosis into a queen could
not be met.
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