Alien Anatomy

Well the Alien looked how it did because of Gigers Bio Mechanical Designs and Art work, this does then lead to us try and find a way to explain why it needs them tupes etc.

Now we have Prometheus that is trying to show us the in some parts the Race behind the Xeno, well the Space Jockey and that this Race has some kind of connection to the Xeno that we do not full have answers for yet. We maybe can start with the Goo...

This substance is a substance that we saw that breaks down a lifeform so that this lifeforms DNA can then be either imprinted onto basic lifeforms to create a Hybrid, or that this lifeforms broken down cells then reform and evolve into different lifeforms.

I dont want to go into too much detail but surfice to say the Goo Produced to me..... no real Bio Mechanical Life Forms.. Yes Shaws Baby Trilobite did have similarities to the Face Huger but the Deacon while it had some apearence of the Xeno it did not look Bio Mechanical like the Xeno does and in particular the Alien 1979 one.

Yes the reasons for this could be we are talking a Hybrid Organism that is Part Human in its Face Huger stage.

The Hammerpedes again while we can see some Xeno DNA they do not appear to be as Bio Mechanical as the Xeno...

The Sacrifice Scene we see the Engineer led to life on Earth (it shows similar act did) and we and life on Earth has no Bio Mech look either.

The only things that do are....

The Organism next to the Engineer in the Fresco, The Engineers Space Jockey Suits and Engineers Bio Tech i.e the Ships and the architecture.

We also have the Mural, and this Deacon looks more Xeno than the one that we saw at the End. Well the Mural looks a hybrid of the two..

Now the only evidence i am going by is what we see in the Movie, if we look at the concept work well they give us a more solid connection to the Xeno.

So what i can conclude is that there is some missing link and explanation as to why the Xeno had that more Machine Look compared to Organic, the reasons for that?  I just dont know.

Before Prometheus was released i did ponder if somehow David 8 used the Engineers Tech/Goo to make himself part Machine Part Organic and ultimately he got Face Hugged by Shaws Baby we saw in the Trailers and that this led to the First Xeno... but off course this would not fit into the Alien line of events as the Derelict and its Cargo had been on LV 426 for thousands of years... And there is some evidence of the Xeno Egg being around thousands of years via the Prometheus Frescos.

So at this moment maybe the Engineers Tech all comes from being stolen and Engineered from the Xeno via use of the Black Goo.  Or the Xeno is some kind of off shoot experiment conducted with the Goo.

But the connection and how... well there is too many answers it could be.

But i stand by that there is some kind of mechanical element that maybe be involved in how the Xeno and the things in Prometheus look different.

This explanation is only what i was trying to cover in my Prometheus draft that i stopped work on....

That was the Engineers was a Race Created by the Elders to perform tasks for them, they was in essence clones, well like how we created teh Androids.  These Engineers was used by the Elders to perform tasks including the Sacrifice to seed there DNA to Evolve life on worlds and then a set of Engineers set up shop to then watch over our creation and evolution they are Gardeners, Earth is the Garden and we and all life is the crop/flowers and they watch us from a near by outpost (LV 223).

I think at some point a group of Engineers started to use the Gift of their Gods (Goo) to tamper with some other lifeforms and came across some Alien Organism and tried to reverse Engineer this lifeform to use it for means of there own.... just as mankind is trying to harvest Spider Silk from Spiders and other Evolutionary Advantages that some life on Earth possesses.

The Engineers on LV 223 did this with some lifeform they found to then produce Bio Tech from... hense reason for difference between the Ships at the start and the ones on LV 223/LV 426.

Anyway its around those lines that i felt the Engineers got there Bio Tech from and a off shoot of that was the creation by accident maybe of the Xeno or the Proto Xeno.

Or maybe the Engineers God is Machine? just dont know.

Spaights poses a question for us regarding Prometheus Part 2....

"The writer reveals that one idea was to have the crew encounter a creator/master of sorts: “Not God, like the one that people believe in and pray to, but a creator… The being who created the engineers.

“Don't expect him to be a merciful God,” he adds.

 But it doesn’t stop there - Spaihts then goes on humour the possibility of some fairly scary Xenomorph offspring: “God created the engineers, the engineers created us, we created robots," explains Spaihts. "Now David is on his way to visit god and he's bringing hell with him.

“I can tell you that Xenomorphs haven't gone away. What would happen if a facehugger got its tentacles on god, or on David?”

Maybe a Clue as how the Xeno evolves? but how does this fit in with the Alien time line as the Derelict is there for thousands of years, so are the frescos and murals in Prometheus.

Here is a Youtube video which touches upon some of the Xeno Anatomy.

Xeno Anatomy

It's made of boogers.

Sorry, couldn't resist! I love to wonder about it too, but I think we have to accept that the point of the Morb is how it exists in our imagination. What do you want it to be?

Yes, it could be that some effort has been made to sort it's origin and make up in the story to come, but I hope not TOO much, I think the mysterious aspect is important to the story and so far I think Ridley and company felt the same.

To me, it is a machine, much like Ash. I think the Engineers are, too, and that would possibly account for his reaction to David. Yes, biology is present but on a level of manipulation that we can't imagine. Much as we try.

To me, it is a creation, but not that of the Engineers, or whomever they work for. Something else. Possibly whatever controls life, which would have to have an opposite. Voila, the MORB.

@Redant- I think those tubes and holes you were talking about are in my opinion, they're what insects have on the sides on their bodies for respiration possibly. The tubes on the back are actually for the creatures resin/saliva for making a Hive. I also fully agree that its a highly advanced cyberorganic creature/machine for war or starting over with a planet. To me the alien is created or made using available organic goo thats manipulated to a point where its beyond horrible but an abhorrent and hideous being in nature. 

Let's not forget 2001 came out in 1968! Hal was ai and I'm not sure if alien had any nano tech mentioned in it! Commodore pet was out green screen much like the mother computer in alien. So I think personally back when alien first came out the aliens were highly evolved organic creatures but over the years as technology has evolved so has the idea of aliens and now I think they will be revealed as a kind of mix of what we think of as technology and biology or even something new. I'm sticking to the idea that they are off shots from  a demi God. I always thought of the tubes as either sensing organs or breathing as such. But it's really more of just a design thing I guess that looked good.

Alien Anatomy, well that's a damn biggie and everyone has their own theories based on what they interpret from the movies and the comics and the games, and from interviews and a whole plethora of magazine and website articles from 1979 onwards. Also take into account that many elements of this franchise have been mis-interpreted over the years, even by the best of us.

One example would be Anchorpoint Essays. Whereby when talking about the Facehugger it states that the "most favored" theory as to how a Chestburster comes to be within the host is via "development theory" - a viral agent is introduced causing the host to develop the Chestburster. This is all despite the fact that in Aliens Bishop cleary states when reading the report left behind by LV-426's colonists that the Facehugger was "removed before embryo implation".

Another example would also be the "Fossil" debate, whereby many fans adhere to the "Space Jockey" being fossilized, all because Dallas said "Looks fossilized", when in actuality it was either petrified or mummified - to be fossilized it would have been compressed in layers of sedimentary rock, which it was not. Dallas was a captain of a tug boat, a "space trucker", and the extent to his knowledge of fossils probably extended no further than that of the average Joe - seeing "skeletons" of Dinosaurs in a museum. Hence he saw something that looked skeletal and uttered "look fossilized".

But back to the point of Alien Anatomy, aside from the few obvious knowns (acid for bood, lifecycle etc), the rest are educated guesses and speculation, with the assertation of accuracy of said facts being largely uncertain - such as Annunakis assertation that the dorsal tubes are for secreting resin, when this is mere speculation sourced from an "idea" of James Camerons.

While we could mention ideas such as echo relocation, exoskeleton vs endoskeleton, insect traits vs reptilian traits, the black goo (a riddle wrapped up in an enigma - as it logically only makes sense if the Engineer at the start of Prometheus was seeding a planet full of Xenomorphs). One aspect I have been pondering recently is the nature of the term "biomechanical".

Usually this term is used as an artistic extension of the term cybernetic, where biological elements and mechanical elements work together - RoboCop, Terminator and Ash/Bishop/Call/David 8 synthetics being perfect examples. To me, especially when looking at the Alien/Xenomorph, I see something different, something that is neither biological nor mechanical, but rather a creature that has been designed, engineered, manufactured using mechnical processes but with biological parts. To explain better - A Terminator uses Hydraulics to move its limbs, whereas we humans use muscles and tendons, The Alien/Xenomorph IMO uses Hydraulics made of biological matter - this could be what those tubes are that the OP mentioned, and to me this is what bio-mech means; the reverse of cybernetic. Dont think mechanical heart, think more a V8 made of flesh, bone and muscle, in a car with a bone chassis, membrane windows, with a flatuent anus instead of an exhaust pipe.

Their anatomy gives me a sense of muchus and sound or vibration to sense the fear of their victims or even to arrise that fear

REDANT - I happen to think that, if the xenomorph is biomechanical to some degree, the "tubing" we see upon its body could be arterial hoses intendid to transport blood or some other carrier fluid throughout its body. Of course, that's pure conjecture - they could be just about anything! I think, in the long run, the creators of the xenomorph wanted their design to fuel our imaginations and make us wonder - without directly telling us anything! :)

The tubes on The Xeno's back were originally intended to be something he could expel almost like a silky webbing from and coccoon his prey, like a spider or something similar.

Maybe someone can reference this properly for me, but I remember seeing and reading about a scene where the alien is on the ceiling and shooting webbing crap out of the tubes in his back, and wrapping the hanging person up in a coccoon.

Sounded kind of awesome, but I don't believe it was ever shot. The tubes then became just a creepy, inhuman accessory. I still think they do a good job of making the creature appear even more foreign and "Alien".

As far as the Tubes go maybe the clue to the answer we are looking for, or what would narrow it down is to look at the known Xeno Lifeforms.

Face Hugger and Chest Buster Stages have no such Tubes......

The Queen does not have them....

If we look at how the Face Huger procreates its kind throughout the movie, we get more clues... 

The Alien in Alien 3 does not them,  does this mean only using Human Hosts produce them?  Nope because even a Queen born from Ripley did not have any.

The Pred Alien happens to have them also.

could it be that a Predator is Genetically more close to Human than a Dog? i.e Humanoid?  But then again we come to the Queen from Alien Resurection.

So i think that means the Xeno does not require the Tubes to function or live so it is not part of its Biology as far as Anatomically requirement.

There for it is not a breathing apparatus etc..

Therefore the Tubes must have some other use, and maybe it is to create the Cocoons and Secrete a Resin etc.

In Alien 3 we see the Dog/Runner Xeno simply kill everything and it made no attempt to capture and Cocoon anyone.  But they did intend it to do so, but they never ended up shooting any scenes related to that.

So maybe the best we can come up with is these Tubes are on certain Xenos purely because they perform a function that these Xenos are required to do, that a Queen and Runner Xeno do not.

Hello all.

My thoughts on the tubes on the Xenos back are they are for either breathing or filtering. Though out the series it has been stated that it can adapt to any conditions. This gives rise to the idea that it can either breathe in many different ways or it has a filtering system.

Maybe it doesn't need to breathe at all?

BIG DAVE - That is an incredibly fascinating hypothesis you've presented! There may, indeed, be some truth to your speculations. Very compelling! :)

well there was idea around Aliens that they may use them to Cocoon victims, and i can only say that if Alien 3 we saw the Runner Xeno Capture and Cocoon a victime (they did in draft intend this) then maybe that would throw that explanation out.

The only other explanation then would be either they are used by a Class of Xeno for some other reason that is nothing to do with breathing or any other Biological function apart from maybe some kind of communication device, this would have to take into account and assume that the Alien 1979 Xenos agenda was to some how create a Queen from one of the Crew (i.e deleted Scene).

The Xeno is a very Alien lifeform so we can throw the book out as far as trying to fit it in with any thing we have on Earth, i.e Insects Respiratory system is different and they do not have Lungs.  They often have a long heart that runs down their back sometimes, this depends on Insect and Arachnid. 

But we just cant say the Xeno Biology is anything like a Mamal or Insect, it could be truely Alien.

I would however sugest that if they are to breath, then we have to ask why does the Queen and Runner Xeno not have them?  And if we learn that the Xeno takes on traits of its Host to adapt to its Enviroment well in that case Humans and Dogs have Lungs and our Biology is the same, all Mamals are and so there should not be the level of difference between the Alien/Aliens Xeno and Alien 3 one.

So if we was trying to peice this as a peice of a Jig Saw then yes i would stick with that the Tubes on certain types of Xeno is there for a function unique to the task that this Xeno is required to do.

If we look at Ants then we have to ask why do Male Flying Ants have Wings and other Ants dont...?  Winged Male Ants are Drones.. their purpose is simply to mate with the Queens.

Cameron touched up on a lot of connections between the Xeno and some Insects including Ants,  while we cant say yes Xenos are just like Ants. Maybe as Flying Male Drones have Wings for their purpose as far as Procreation of the Species, then maybe the Xeno Drones have the Tubes for some other purpose that is needed to procreate the species.

That maybe being capture and cacoon hosts for the Face Hugers.

Another explanation following those lines are different casts of Xeno.

Alien we had big Chap, Drone Xeno.

Aliens we got the Warrior Xeno.

Alien 3 the Runner, but why does this one not have Tubes, and why does the Queen not have any, so yes the only logical explanation is that they are needed to create the Hives and Coccoon Victims.

So the Runner could be a cast that is like a Scout or Hunter.

The Queen does not have Tubes either but its task is purely to stay and lay Eggs, and this is common with Ants, Queen Ants have Wings but they lose them when they are ready to nest and Lay Eggs.

And the Queen Xeno, has instead of the Tubes it has like Spikes, in such a odd area that could these be where Wings could be attached?

Then we get back to the Drone and the Warrior difference which is the head carapace, Cameron made the change for reasons to do with he felt that making the Xeno Props/Costumes the Alien 1979 look was a bit fragile.  

So looking at why as far as Biology goes, maybe we have to look at the function and what did the Alien Xeno do that is different..... not much (some would argue because they are Alien Fanboys who do not like the Cameron Ideas and brainless Bugs) but Aliens Xenos actually showed more  intelligence but also that its purpose is to protect the Hive at all Costs.

So what other differences are there..... if we go to the Alien DC then there is a big one... we see both Alien and Aliens Xenos have Tubes and both can make Hives and Coccon Hosts.  But we see the Alien Drone attempt to Egg Morph one of the Crew.

Thus maybe this is a trait only a Drone can do, and the Drone Xeno seems to be able to take on more of its Hosts Traits than the Warrior Xenos (Human Skull under Carapace),  maybe this is needed for it to be able to Egg Morph.

What purpose would that be ideal for?  I would sugest to create a Xeno Queen Egg/Royal Face Huger.