The Disturbing Life Cycle of the Xenomorph Explained

Like any parasitoid, the life cycle of the xenomorph is brutal and disturbing. But what makes it particularly bad is that it prefers humans! Join us, dear traveler, as we explore the fascinating world of the xenomorph, as seen in the documentary Alien: Resurrection. Just be sure to keep your distance.

This video was edited by @CyanRameron, who does excellent work!

Chapters:
0:00 - Intro
02:31 - Ovomorph
06:41 - Facehugger
14:54 - Chestburster
19:29 - Conclusion

Sources:
Kuris, Armand & Luo, Mona. (2023). Science fiction: The biology of the alien in Alien. The Biochemist. 45. 1-4. 10.1042/bio_2023_154.

[kylebrooks]

Romulus gave us good points. The face huggers “see” by heat and sound and if you can free the tail, it’s now the best and easiest way of pulling it off

[Commander_Appo]

I hope this covers my ticket for the Xenomorph adult form expedition

[The_Black_Falchion]

All I’ve gotten from this is that a little crab monster jumps on your face and puts its balls in your mouth. Few hours later your lunch gives birth.

[terrywest]

I've theorized that only Star Trek medical technology could successfully remove the face hugger from the host. I think you could probably take the victim to a sickbay, put them behind a quarantine force field, lock on to the face hugger with a transporter and beam it off the victim. Then, they could scan for any growing chestburster and also neutralize and remove it.

[ashgonza]

New lore suggests that the Xenos always existed as a primordial species and before the engineers/space jockeys ever did. The engineers studied the xenos and created the black oil from experimenting on them. It's not the other way around that people proposed for so long.

[bo-dine]

Actually, there is a parasitic wasp which is MUCH closer in action to a face hugger: there is a wasp out there which preys on AntLions, it catches the AntLion's large jaws with it's rear legs, forcing the jaw to stay open and then it injects the egg through the mouth the same way as the face hugger!! I forget the name but it's probably not too hard to find if anyone is curious, the unique feature of this wasp are the rear legs which look like a more-curved pair of Metal scissors / cutters; this is what grabs the outer edges of the AntLion's jaws so well.

[briandigiovanni]

6:32 For a moment I was worried he was going to say "Before we do, I'd like to thank our sponsor..."

[adamschrepfer]

Summer taught us that all you need to prevent this is to have a glory to glorzo

[jaivenoiszachary]

0:35 "Detecting multiple leviathan class lifeforms. Are you certain whatever you're doing is worth it ?" 😂

[ChevonJBenzo]

This is probably the most descriptive video of the face hugger anatomy that I can truly follow and understand. 👾

[maniacmagge]

I'd love to see a Tyranid lifecycle from Warhammer 40k! so many bioforms may even make it a two parter that i'd 100% binge like the Helldivers or Subnautica videos!

[EarthrealmWarrior]

I'm with Manta with this one. Xenomorphs are disgusting and scary but you can't just "leave it there" Can't wait for the next part

[mattrissling]

“Never let us down. Recently .” 😂 that’s reassuring

[CordeliaWagner]

I don't like the Prometheus / Covenant approach that the Xenomorphs were crrated.
I like the idea that there were always perfect and their origin is a mystery of natural Evolution.

[nauscakes]

I don't know how I stumbled upon this video, but it is remarkably cheesy, and I love it!

This is the kind of stuff I'd love to see more of on Youtube. It feels like there's real passion here, and not just click farming. Keep up the good work!

[MrDuneedon]

I like what AlienTheory said regarding the time it takes to implant a chestburster embryo & the time until it actually bursts forth: it all depends on plot convenience. How true. 😂 That said, I did like that Romulus showed us a new “cocoon” stage, which helps explain the incredibly fast growth from chestburster to xenomorph. That was a nice addition.

[kingmidasxynopyt]

The only painful part about this is how despite layer after layer of absorbing genes from other life forms to exist, the xenos still end up the same egg.

Yeah, the goop, that absorbs genes, yeah it just knows which ones are useful and which ones aren’t

[bjsteg]

I love how these 70s and 80 scifi movies came about by a room full of people going "hey! What to create drama or forward a plot. Years, even decades later people string together enough bull s**t to make it sound plausible and like the writers had this in mind the whole time.

[magnolia]

I love the extensive detail this goes into. My own studies were never this detailed. Please do more!

[jackdaniels]

Little flaw around 10:00: you can’t intubate through the oesophageus, the facehugger would need two pipes, one for intubation (trachea) and another one for placing the xenomorph into the stomach trough the oesophageus.