The Alien is the one of the Main Species of the game and the movie, it is usually the last thing the predator fights, in its Praetorian or Queen species.
ORIGIN
There is not one solid fact as to the origins of the Xenomorph species.
Instead, there are many assumptions which can neither be confirmed nor denied.
The most commonly accepted hypothesis is that they evolved naturally on a planet much different than our own.
Other ideas include that they were created by another race, perhaps the Yautja (Predator) as an "ultimate prey", or by a race only to known to us as "Space Jockeys", as a biological weapon. Xenomorphs are specifically said to not be indigenous to LV - 426, a relatively small and unknown planet, where a large body of their eggs were found in the hold of a derelict Space Jockey ship. No one knows if they were using the eggs as research, or as a bioweapon. Some say that billions of years ago, the advanced race controlled much of the universe with the xenomorphs, but were wiped out by them.
LIVECYCLE
The alien has multiple lifecycle forms.
Egg
The Xenomorph is born in egg form, laid in place by the hive's Queen, through the use of a detachable ovipositor. The egg is thick and gelatinous, usually with several membranes attached to the outer layers.
The Xenomorph hatchling - called a Facehugger - is protected by a thick fleshy layer at the top of the egg, where the "shell" peels open when the Facehugger senses creatures nearby.
In the first movie, it appeared they could sense when another creature crossed into some form of mist covering their nursery area. It's a widely accepted hypothesis that this was a containment field to keep the eggs dormant, put in place by a Space Jockey. When this mist was broken, the Facehuggers appeared to be alerted, and went on the search for the host.
Facehugger
After the egg opens, the Facehugger emerges and seeks out a nearby life form, latching onto it's face, wrapping it's tail around it's airway, and implanting the xenomorph embryo(s).
It will coil it's tail tighter around the airway to prevent premature removal, and an attempt to sever the fingers found that Facehuggers possess the same acidic blood as a Xenomorph.
The Facehugger supplies oxygen to keep the host alive during the impregnating process. Once the embryo(s) has been implanted, the Facehugger falls off, curls up, and dies.
Hosts usually fall into a short coma and wake up ravenously hungry. Hours might pass between then and their time of death.
However, in some cases, they will awake not gradually but suddenly - just in time to be conscious for the Chestburster's push out into the world. Their state of normalcy will last only seconds or minutes.
Chestburster
After attaching itself to a vein and gestating in the chest cavity, Xenomorph infants - called Chestbursters - writhe and chew through the host's chest, causing severe pain, blood loss, and shock. The host's rib cage is cracked open, bones bent outward. No one has survived this process, except for Ripley in the film Alien: Resurrection - she was cryogenically frozen, and then had it surgically removed.
At this stage, the Xenomorph is small, limb-less, and very vulnerable. Among other possibilities, it's neck can be snapped. It needs to get to a safe area so it can reach it's next life stage.
In Alien vs Predator: Extinction, they turn into a cocoon (though this could be a subspecies).
Adult
Little is known about the transformation that occurs between the Chestburster and Adult phases.
The Xenomorph appears to moult before reaching maturity[1][4][5]. Maturity is reached in a few hours, and involves a dozenfold increase in mass, which would presumably require some form of nourishment. In the novelization of the movie Alien, Ripley comes across a food locker that had been raided, apparently by the Xenomorph to get food. Whether or not this was nourishment to grow was not specified. In the video game Alien Vs. Predator 2, one of the Alien missions requires the player to find a source of food in order for the Chestburster to advance to it's Drone phase. At the end of the level, a short cutscene indicates that the Chestburster consumes a house cat in a carrier. The scene does not show what happens during the change in life cycle.
When the first Drone encountered on record was born on the Nostromo, it had a smooth, long head, and an upright-standing body. It had no eyes, a tail, and strange spines protruding from its back.
However, many years later on LV-426, the same warriors were found, but they looked slightly different. The head was no longer smooth, but ridged. One theory is that the smooth-headed Xenomorph was a Drone, and the ridge-headed Xenomorphs were Warriors. (The Xenomorph in the first movie built a nest. Only Drones can build a nest - that is their job in the colony.)
The most widely accepted idea is age - the Xenomorphs found on LV-426 were more than a few days old, where all of the others encountered were less than a day old. On the other hand, the Alien vs Predator game has showed that the Drones are black (like in the movies), but the Warriors are a very dark blue, the color difference indicating that age is not a factor.
Another variation is the Dog or Runner Xenomorph, called so because of it's dog-like stance (standing and moving on all fours) and higher speed. It's host was a dog, rather than a human.
Another variation was encountered on an expedition to Antarctica. These warriors were less humanoid and sometimes walked on all fours. Their tails were longer, with a large, curved barb at the end. The head was smooth, but much shorter than normal. It is important to note, however, that this particular Xenomorph hive was grown by the Predators, who introduced a hormone with unknown effects into the Queen's system.
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