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The zoology and biochemistry of xenomorphs from the Alien franchise
- pavel_lishin 2y ago> The xenomorph’s multicellular structure serves as a cornerstone for its classification within Animalia (Ros-Rocher et al., 2021). Its intricate organization of cells, tissues, and organs reflects a level of biological complexity commonly associated with animals. This is already wrong! Animalia is an Earth kingdom, and the Xenomorphs clearly aren't an Earth life-form. > Xenomorphs can be included into the Arthropoda phylum due to the morphological similarities shared with certain terrestrial arthropods such as an exoskeletal structure, a segmented body plan, the presence of hemolymph, etc. Again, no! They're not an Earth life-form. Just because they superficially resemble some arthropods in some features doesn't make them an arthropod! You might as well say that a train is an arthropod - exoskeletal structure, segmented body plan, the presence of hemolymph...
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- Hikikomori 2y ago>This is already wrong! Animalia is an Earth kingdom, and the Xenomorphs clearly aren't an Earth life-form. Is it if the engineers seeded earth with life?
- Filligree 2y agoIt would have needed to be way back in single-cellular prehistory to be compatible with known history. They still wouldn't be the same phylum. Never mind that xenomorphs aren't even carbon-based.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y ago> This is already wrong! Animalia is an Earth kingdom, and the Xenomorphs clearly aren't an Earth life-form. Has biology even bothered to come up with a name for that level of taxon, or would it be premature? I know that in recent years they've been quibbling about both what the top-level (Earth top-level) taxon should be, and what the specific ones would even be for it, but I've never heard of a scheme that embiggens it to alien life. If they ever did so, would there even be the same number of sub-taxons for it for any given planet? And what in the hell do we do if we discover one of those on Earth? There's no reason to be certain that life only abiogenically manifested once on Earth is there?
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- jncfhnb 2y agohttps://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convergent_evolution Things evolve into crabs all the time I don’t know if we specially have a word for that form of mistake in the tree. I’m under the impression we just fix the tree as we go.
- biofox 2y agoDepends on your philosophic position on taxonomy. If you wish for it to capture inheritance and lineage, then I agree, but it is equally valid to view it as a relationship of similarities and patterns (similar to design patterns in programming). The lineages may have different origins, but if they converge on a common pattern, why shouldn't they be grouped together? (if it quacks like a duck...)
- tetris11 2y agoAlso, doesn't the chemical merely mutate the existing DNA, so that a phlogeny based on sequence composition would yield high consensus for existing organisms (albeit with way higher than base rate variants)?
- psychoslave 2y agoWe can definitely group them, but if we want to pretend they are the same phylum, that will be a move going against the consensual meaning of the term in biology, which clearly distinguish analogous structures and homologous structures. At this point, it’s clear that yes we can say whatever fantasy we want, but that is not going to instantly override the precise preponderant meaning it has gained in the community most interested and knowledgeable in the topic. All that said, I’m not a biologist, and given the honesty I show with such a disclaimer, you know you can blindly trust me on all the topics I’m barely conscious about, right? So trust me xenomorphs are actually adorable cute cuddly pets. Don’t believe all you see in your nightmarish block busters. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_(biology) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Homology_(biology) https://www.thoughtco.com/analogy-vs-homology-1224760 https://www.thoughtco.com/analogy-vs-homology-1224760
- jhbadger 2y agoIn science fiction you pretty much have to accept either a single source of life or amazing convergent evolution. How can Vulcans mate successfully with humans in Star Trek, if they aren't animals very closely related to Homo sapiens? Or the humans in Star Wars that lived "long ago in a galaxy far far away".
- yjftsjthsd-h 2y agoAnd in both Star Trek and Star Wars, the answer eventually given somewhere in the lore is that a very long time ago someone seeded the entire galaxy with (humanoid?) life and it is all in a single tree. (See https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Progenitor https://memory-alpha.fandom.com/wiki/Progenitor and https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Celestial/Legends#Architects https://starwars.fandom.com/wiki/Celestial/Legends#Architect... )
- nine_k 2y agoChimps, gorillas, and humans are very close in the genetic tree, but cannot cross-breed. For a high level of genetic compatibility, constant contact and cross-breeding are likely required.
- jncfhnb 2y agoIt is actually not clear whether chimp/human hybrids are impossible. https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanzee https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Humanzee It’s possible it was actually going to happen if not disrupted in China during the cultural revolution
- josefx 2y ago> and it is all in a single tree That seems to apply to the Star Trek one, which going by the lore seems to be more of an artificially maintained rotten stump that had any potential for divergent/adaptive growth preemptively cut. The Star Wars lore you link only seems to talk about empires that made contact with multiple species and might have helped spread them over a hundred thousand year span. It does not seem to mention a single point of origin or an artificially crippled evolution that would enforce parallel development.
- philote 2y agoI think you're missing the entire point of the article. It's attempting to classify a fictional, alien species with a real taxonomy (the only one we currently have available to us). And yes, "just because they superficially resemble some arthropods in some features doesn't make them an arthropod".. but at the very beginning they point out they cannot use DNA sequences to help classify, so they are only using known physical characteristics.
- pavel_lishin 2y agoOh, I know the point. I'm just engaging in the same kind of nerd pedantry!
- GoblinSlayer 2y agoThe elephant in the room is it's a silicon organic organism. So during parasitic stage it grows basically ex nihilo, and then hunts and eats carbon life forms for no reason. It's hollywood zoology.
- jncfhnb 2y agoThey don’t eat humans generally. They did eat a guy in one of the later ones. But the better thought out films don’t have them doing this. Just killing or paralyzing things and then taking them back to the nest.
- shiroiushi 2y agoAs far as I'm concerned, 3 and 4 never happened. I'm still on the fence about Prometheus and Covenant.
- jncfhnb 2y agoThe prequels are cool Haven’t seen the new one*
- shiroiushi 2y agoI haven't seen Covenant or Romulus yet. I saw Prometheus, and it was really bad, but in a complicated way. It wasn't a completely terrible movie that you can just dismiss as garbage like Battlefield: Earth and not think about again. It was beautifully shot, and a visual feast to watch. There were some really great scenes, like the robo-surgery scene. But the characters were frequently stupid, and the script was bad because it made the characters do idiotic, incompetent things that should only be seen in a B-grade horror movie. Ridley should have known better, and should have done a better job making sure the script he was working with made sense, so I'm very disappointed with him. He didn't do this with the first "Alien" movie at all. Then he apparently did it again with Covenant: I haven't seen this one yet, but what I've read says he didn't really learn his lesson from Prometheus, and made another great-looking movie with high production values and a poor script. So I haven't been in a hurry to see it. Romulus seems to have good reviews so far, and a different director, so I'd like to give it a chance. I just haven't had a chance to see it yet, but it is high on my list of films to watch soon, along with the new Quiet Place movie.
- NoMoreNicksLeft 2y agoI've never liked "xenomorph" as a name for them. It's like calling them "serpentines" if they were snake-shaped or "quadrupeds" if they had 4 legs. So-called fandoms really are filled with stooges. Should be something like Gigeroids.
- A4ET8a8uTh0 2y agoAhh, but you miss out on the 'cool' aspect embodied by letter X, the underlying meaning that effectively refers to the title of the movie and other things are likely going over my head. Gige prefix does not have the same impact. Alien in fake latin sounds a lot better.
- 1986 2y agoGreek, not Latin
- A4ET8a8uTh0 2y agoThank you for catching this. Will leave original in place.
- dylan604 2y agoYeah, if they used Z instead of X, the Brits would have said Zedenomorph and that's just not right in any language
- tivert 2y ago> Should be something like Gigeroids. Xenomorph sounds way cooler. That's what's important in a movie/toy franchise.
- 0x1ceb00da 2y agoXenomorph sounds cooler.
- corytheboyd 2y agoRule of cool wins again
- smikhanov 2y agoIgnoring the content of the paper, could someone comment on this referencing style: Thus, the seed of the xenomorph, the “black goo” (Chemical A0-3959X.91–15) What does "Chemical" refers to here?
- will_lam 2y agoI think it's what it's officially called in the Alien Universe
- smikhanov 2y agoAh, so this is not how people doing chemistry refer to different chemical elements in their papers. Given the overall level of imitation, I thought it's that.
- TeMPOraL 2y agoI think the sequence of sci-fi-like references goes like this: "Chemical A0-3959X.91–15, i.e. 42-(acetyloxy)-1-7-0-1-unobtaini-interferon acid, also known as "black goo", sold under brand name EcoCola, marketed as alternative to NukaCola, is an nano-engineered chemical first documented in report A0-3959X, ..." Or something.
- asdff 2y agoIn the methods sections they might actually do this with what is called a CAS number. This ensures you can order the that exact chemical from Sigma Aldrich when you try that experiment yourself.
- azangru 2y ago> The xenomorph’s multicellular structure serves as a cornerstone for its classification within Animalia (Ros-Rocher et al., 2021). Its intricate organization of cells, tissues, and organs reflects a level of biological complexity commonly associated with animals. Xenomorphs can be included into the Arthropoda phylum due to the morphological similarities shared with certain terrestrial arthropods such as an exoskeletal structure, a segmented body plan, the presence of hemolymph, etc. I don't understand the logic of this argument. If Xenomorph has evolved on a different planet, it will surely not have the same common ancestor as Animalia, let alone Arthropoda. Why would anyone classify it under those taxons? P.S.: Ah, I see this has already been commented on: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42297139 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=42297139
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- general_error 2y agoThe alien queen does not use its ovipositor to inject eggs into people. It’s all just some AI slop.
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- nonameiguess 2y agoShould we gather the "just to clear it up" statements all in one place? "Xenomorph" is not any sort of official in-universe term for these things, though I believe Alien: Romulus at least does have scientists calling it "xenomorph <some number>" indicating it has been catalogued. Xenomorph is just a generic term for a non-humanoid alien, though, what PFC Hudson called a "bug" when the term was introduced as Lt Gorman was briefing the other Marines about what they might expect. This wasn't their first time encountering hostile life and they called a lot of it by this name. The xenomorphs (as fans have taking to calling it) are not silicon-based, but rather some blend of organic and inorganic. They're bioengineered superweapons, not naturally occurring. As far as we can tell, they don't eat at all, at least in their adult form, as they grow to full size in a matter of hours without us ever seeing them consume anything. They only seem to need hosts in their larval form. This is also why they mostly don't kill the humans they attack unless they have to because they're under threat. They instead attach them to a resin they secrete, where they are used as incubators for more larval forms. Their entire purpose seems to boil down to multiplying as rapidly as possible. I believe Ridley Scott has suggested they consume electricity or radiation in general directly, rather than extracting energy from food. They were not actually created by the "engineers," as Shaw from Prometheus called the space jockey guys. They were created by David, the first synthetic sentient android created by Weyland, when he and Shaw hijacked an engineer ship. He returned to their home world, released the black goo and killed everything, and experiments with its ability to create multistage lifecycle semi-organic lifeforms, which he eventually managed to turn into the xenomorph as it was seen in the original Alien. The black goo itself seems to have been some sort of quasi-religious experiment thing the engineers developed billions of years ago that has the ability to dissolve organic matter, attach itself to DNA, and rewrite it to become some kind of more "advanced" lifeform. The beginning of Prometheus shows them doing this on earth, with a sacrificial engineer dissolving himself into primordial water to seed what would eventually become all earth life. This doesn't imply earth-life is genetically similar to the xenomorph, but rather to the engineers, who were humanoid. So Ridley Scott (or Damon Lindelof or whoever) is implying earth life was meant to eventually become humanoid all along, like we're the ultimate end of an experiment in engineered evolution. However, back on their home planet, they didn't just stop doing new things for four billion years. The black goo of the present in Prometheus was similar to the original used to seed earth, but seemingly had changed at that point and specifically created more xenomorph-like things, now by infecting other lifeforms and incubating in them, rather than dissolving them into free-floating DNA. All of that addresses whether xenomorphs are "related" in any biological sense to life on earth, but either way, I'm not convinced arthropods are the right analogy. The reality of their size and movement is obviously confounded by the fact they're played by humans wearing costumes, but I'd be surprised if they didn't have endoskeletons. Ridley Scott has stated the original intention of the creature design was to invoke armor. They're insect-like in appearance, but arthropod exoskeletons are not really armor. In fact, arthropods very rarely grow as large as humans, with the only examples all being extinct, and they had paper-thin exoskeletons, in part because molting something that large is difficult and expensive. To me, I think they're more similar to certain types of dinosaurs with hardened exterior armor. That said, they are clearly shown molting, but the fact they have claws and teeth seems to suggest they probably also have bones. I suspect this is mostly just confusion on the part of the designers or the simple fact they aren't really trying to make something that is biologically coherent or plausible so much as a nightmare made flesh. I don't think it's ever made clear what the engineers were trying to do. The timelines are a little jacked up, but the derelict the Prometheus crew discovers can't be the same one discovered later by the Nostromo, because the one of the Nostromo has actual fully-realized xenomorphs, which the narrative eventually makes clear were created by David after the events of Prometheus. The derelict in that case was simply carrying black goo, but a weaponized version, and carrying it to earth, apparently intending to destroy all life there. Why is never explained, nor does it seem to be the case that this was some civilization-wide decision, since the mission failed and no follow-on was ever launched. This could have been some rogue faction that weaponized black goo and attempted to destroy life that had earlier been created by the non-weaponized older version out of disagreement with the larger historical goals of their own people. Weyland-Yutani corps by the time of the mainline films seems to not understand what they are dealing with. They understand they have found some substance that can meld with organic life and create a stronger version of it that doesn't need food and can survive in a vacuum. Romulus seems to suggest that the goal at that point was to create a race of hybrid mine workers that would survive the harsh conditions better than humans. They don't seem to have ever realized that David had created the xenomorphs as they existed at that point and his goal was not to create better humans but to destroy all other life completely and replace it with xenomorphs. Considering all I've written to this point, I'm amazed at how silly the mythology of this series eventually got after starting as a simple great horror flick that needed no explanation or backstory.