The Monstrefact: Alien, Part 7 – The Xenomorph

In this episode of STBYM’s The Monstrefact, Robert discusses the perfect organism. 

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Episode Transcript

Speaker 1 (00:03):
Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.

Speaker 2 (00:09):
Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.
Thus far in the Alien Monster Fact series, we've discussed
everything from the mysterious engineers and their black goo, to

(00:31):
the xenomorph egg and the face hugger that emerges from it.
As we all know, the next phase in the alien
life cycle is the violent eruption of the free living
chest burster, which swiftly grows to become an adult xenomorph,
sometimes referred to as a stage four xenomorph or simply
a drone or warrior in science fiction. The Biology of

(00:53):
the Alien in Alien by armand Im Kurus and Mona
why Lau, published just last year in the Portland Press.
The authors describe the xenomorph's parasitic development inside the host
as lining up with natural world coinobiant parasitoids parasites that
attack hosts that then continue feeding and growing during the parasitism. Because,

(01:16):
of course, we see this in the original nineteen seventy
nine film Alien, when Caine's face hugger falls away, he
awakens and acts like his old self again. He chats
and jokes with his crewmates. He enjoys a meal and
prepares to carry on his ship duties, right before the
creature inside him violently emerges. Couris and Low compared this

(01:37):
to various parasitoid wasps, horsehair worms, and the corticep's fungus.
In general, we're dealing with examples where the doomed host
organism continues to behave as usual, sometimes even feeding, but
also acting in a manner to benefit the parasite. Corticeps
infected ants climb to a high point and release spores.

(01:58):
Horsehair worm infected cricket seek out water to drown in,
enabling the spawn inside them to burst free into their
desired watery habitat and swim off in search of a mate.
The growth of such parasites is amazing, consuming host tissues
to the developing organism is almost as large as the
host in some cases, converting according to Corris and Low,

(02:20):
upwards of quote seventy percent of the host tissues into
parasitoid biomass and up to ninety percent of its nitrogen,
mostly to build parasitoid protein. In the twenty twelve article
how the Alien xenomorph Works for HowStuffWorks, dot com I
pointed to some grizzly natural world examples of this sort
of thing, including the parasitic wasp cotessiaglomerata, which may pump

(02:45):
up to sixty eggs into a single caterpillar, which may
ultimately account for thirty percent of the host organism's body weight.
The hatching larvae drink the host organism's fluids, but avoid
vital organs. Other organisms, such as the Dinocampus cosinello wasp,
seem to reprogram the host to protect the emergent larvae.

(03:06):
And here's another interesting wrinkle to this. Parasitic wasp larvae
seem to use a virus mimicking poison to shut down
a host's immune system, allowing their growing spawn to develop
inside the host unopposed. In a matter of hours, perhaps
aided by the consumption of additional biomass and even metals,
the xenomorph chest burster develops into a full grown adult,

(03:29):
standing a good eight feet or two point four meters
in height. Glistening and black, the bipedal xenomorph boasts a
number of features that indeed make it worthy of the
moniker perfect organism. It seems to benefit from a dual
skeletal system, both indo and exo, as well as caustic
blood that burns anything that might injure it. They're fast,

(03:51):
They're stealthy. They attack with vicious claws, spiked tail, razor
sharp teeth, and a secondary jaw that launches piston like
to puncture prey, often compared to the phar angial jaws
of the moraeel. Yet while the eel uses this adaptation
to pull in prey, the xenomorph seems chiefly concerned with

(04:12):
killing and subduing its prey, either for transformation into an
ovomorph or in preparation for a xenomorph Queen's eggs. A
loane An adult xenomorph betrays cunning and a fair amount
of vicarious learning and problem solving, and within a hive context,
they may benefit from emergent intelligence or some manner of

(04:33):
hive mind. They have even been observed to exploit human technology,
at least to a limited degree. To quote the android Ash,
we are left with a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse,
or delusions of morality. It may constitute the ultimate creation
of the Engineers, or that of the rogue android David.

(04:53):
It may also be the true form of a creature
that inspired the Engineers in their biotechnological p suits, still
dominant in the dark reaches of the galaxy, or resurrected
via the mad research of a demented, vengeful mind. We
don't know, We may never know, and it seems entirely
likely that we should never have left the Earth to

(05:15):
begin with. That's it for the Alien Monster Facts series,
but depending on what the new film Alien Romulus opening
this weekend has to show us, I may be back
for one more episode to discuss its monsters, so we'll see.
Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact the

(05:36):
Artifact or Animalia Stupendium each week on Wednesdays. As always,
you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
your Mind dot com.

Speaker 1 (05:55):
Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of iHeartRadio. For
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