Alien and Predator speculative evolution | Homology in Sci-Fi

Ahoy there skullywags!

Welcome to another episode of the Skullywag Speculative series.

The oral anatomy and mouth parts of species tell us a lot about their evolutionary history. In this episode, we look at the common oral anatomy of the alien (xenomorph) and predator (Yautja).

Using basic principles of evolutionary biology and cladistics, I present the evidence for a predator-like species and an alien-like species potentially sharing a common ancestor.

I say predator-like and alien-like because this is obviously no attack at the fantastic lore surrounding these two creatures. This is just a discussion about evolutionary mechanisms and concepts of cladistics.

Intro animations by Stephanie Montaño and Jansel Rubiano

Music
Introduction: Max Brhon - Redemption [NCS Release]
Body: fsm-team-escp-fugitive, voyager-synthwave-neon, Unknown Brain & Hoober - Phenomenon (ft. Dax & VinDon) [NCS Release]
Outro: NEFFEX - Desperate [NCS Release]
Music provided by NoCopyrightSounds Free Download/Stream and Pixabay

[TheSkullywagLab]

Apologies skullywags! 7:36 Lizards actually have one ear bone - the columella, where mammals have three - the malleus, incus, and stapes.

[douglassrovinsky]

I am so glad you mentioned the paired dentaries. So many people (including researchers that should know better... ) don't realise that the 'human condition' of a fused mandible is weird, and for a lot of mammals, the symphysis is only connected in the most vague sense of the word. In fact... you can tell a lot about what's going on with a mammal when that symphysis starts to fuse up! Unless you're looking at Palorchestes...

[walterosvaldazosmanuvelios]

Shame your views went down the last couple of videos 😢, these topics are really interesting I really hope you keep posting videos for a long time mate!! Greetings from spain

[matthewbooth]

This was a great video and I enjoyed hearing your logic. Certainly a great story seed for a more interesting combined universe/planet. Makes me think we could invert the older movies and have humans on the Predator-Alien planet!

[BiTurbo]

Neat! I wonder what the ancestral diets of these two species might have been. They both seem to have fairly specialised dental equipment (though perhaps the predator's outer jawbones are more for display 🤔)

[Phrenotopia]

Interesting take! Of course, the surest way to apply parsimony and thus establish homology would be to line up a dozen of these creatures in a cladistic analysis taking a wider suite of traits into account. And yes, indeed, the only way to explain Star Trek humanoid aliens is to assume common descent. There was some retconning attempt brought forward in one TNG episode once, but it was not very satisfactory.

[nightmarehound]

I've been currently watching through all Aliens and just got to the AvP ones, and lets just say I'll *much rather* watch this video,

[StarbyterBits]

Yep! Spock is half human, half vulcan; the different series have a lot of differing reasons, as to why human/vulcan hubrids can happen, as well as human/klingon, and all other hybrid pairings in show. But none of it really is cohesive, and it's a little convoluted lmao. It all boils down to them being "genetically compatible" somehow, one way or another.
Vulcans, are closely related to Romulans though. And there has canonically been a human/romulan hybrid as well.

[Rodrigo_Vega]

Sorry, I don't buy it : P The video is interesting for sure, but my main issue is that the xenomorph is _nothing_ like the predator if you take into account that they are not "naturally" humanoid. They only get their humanoid shape after being hosted by a human/oid. With the only "pure" stage, the facehugger being entirely... well, alien, in their anatomy. If we had at least any other synapomorphies I would entertain the thought, but take away the humanoid shape and their life-cyles, biology, their _chemistry_ is so radically different. The jaws are just a convergent development if even that. I always thought of the predator jaws as something like pedipalps anyway.

[ltlbuddha]

I know humans and Vulcans have the same cranial bones, same facial bones, same mandible, but are they really similar?😉

[DEATH-THE-GOAT]

I'm a Lion, how cool is't that.

[mbdzel]

I know this is my second comment, but do research on Star Trek. All humanoids in Star Trek were engineered from the same elder race. That is why they look so much alike and can interbreed. Please, before you do another what-if video, research the fantasy worlds you are comparing things to.

[mbdzel]

This is a nice little coulda woulda video, but if you read the books, you will see that they both evolved on different planets. The Xenomorphs are not even the apex predators on their homeworld.