17. The development of sociality - 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. The development of sociality - Speculations about the alien species (Movies: Alien)
In descending order, the "weak" points in the life cycle of the pre-social
organisms appear to be the dormant phase, the gestation phase and the
travel time of the larva from egg to host. These risks could be minimized
by securing the eggs "underground" (away from host/egg predation), and
by immobilizing hosts near to the eggs. The eggs might remain susceptible
to predation by small egg eating creatures or larger creatures capable of
entering an active nest, requiring cooperative measures on the part of
adults in protecting them. Sociality might develop naturally from such a
system. Initially, a division of labor between hunter-foragers to locate and
retrieve fresh hosts and warrior-scavenger-nurses to protect the eggs and
gestating hosts from predators might suffice. The subsequent evolution of
the queen dominated caste system may have been a way to diminish
competition for hosts between partially related organisms, by establishing
genetically homogenous nests. The large numbers of eggs produced by
modern queens seem to indicate a strategy involving overproduction of
eggs. The persistence of this strategy in the modern species might be due
to co-evolution of egg predators, or to environmental conditions where the
risk of destruction of significant portions of the nest was high.
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