Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of iHeartRadio.
Speaker 2: Hi, my name is Robert Lamb and this is the
Speaker 2: Monster Fact, a short form series from Stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: Your Mind focusing on mythical creatures, ideas and monsters in time.
Speaker 2: Thus far in the Alien Monster Fact series, we've discussed
Speaker 2: everything from the mysterious engineers and their black goo, to
Speaker 2: the xenomorph egg and the face hugger that emerges from it.
Speaker 2: As we all know, the next phase in the alien
Speaker 2: life cycle is the violent eruption of the free living
Speaker 2: chest burster, which swiftly grows to become an adult xenomorph,
Speaker 2: sometimes referred to as a stage four xenomorph or simply
Speaker 2: a drone or warrior in science fiction. The Biology of
Speaker 2: the Alien in Alien by armand Im Kurus and Mona
Speaker 2: why Lau, published just last year in the Portland Press.
Speaker 2: The authors describe the xenomorph's parasitic development inside the host
Speaker 2: as lining up with natural world coinobiant parasitoids parasites that
Speaker 2: attack hosts that then continue feeding and growing during the parasitism. Because,
Speaker 2: of course, we see this in the original nineteen seventy
Speaker 2: nine film Alien, when Caine's face hugger falls away, he
Speaker 2: awakens and acts like his old self again. He chats
Speaker 2: and jokes with his crewmates. He enjoys a meal and
Speaker 2: prepares to carry on his ship duties, right before the
Speaker 2: creature inside him violently emerges. Couris and Low compared this
Speaker 2: to various parasitoid wasps, horsehair worms, and the corticep's fungus.
Speaker 2: In general, we're dealing with examples where the doomed host
Speaker 2: organism continues to behave as usual, sometimes even feeding, but
Speaker 2: also acting in a manner to benefit the parasite. Corticeps
Speaker 2: infected ants climb to a high point and release spores.
Speaker 2: Horsehair worm infected cricket seek out water to drown in,
Speaker 2: enabling the spawn inside them to burst free into their
Speaker 2: desired watery habitat and swim off in search of a mate.
Speaker 2: The growth of such parasites is amazing, consuming host tissues
Speaker 2: to the developing organism is almost as large as the
Speaker 2: host in some cases, converting according to Corris and Low,
Speaker 2: upwards of quote seventy percent of the host tissues into
Speaker 2: parasitoid biomass and up to ninety percent of its nitrogen,
Speaker 2: mostly to build parasitoid protein. In the twenty twelve article
Speaker 2: how the Alien xenomorph Works for HowStuffWorks, dot com I
Speaker 2: pointed to some grizzly natural world examples of this sort
Speaker 2: of thing, including the parasitic wasp cotessiaglomerata, which may pump
Speaker 2: up to sixty eggs into a single caterpillar, which may
Speaker 2: ultimately account for thirty percent of the host organism's body weight.
Speaker 2: The hatching larvae drink the host organism's fluids, but avoid
Speaker 2: vital organs. Other organisms, such as the Dinocampus cosinello wasp,
Speaker 2: seem to reprogram the host to protect the emergent larvae.
Speaker 2: And here's another interesting wrinkle to this. Parasitic wasp larvae
Speaker 2: seem to use a virus mimicking poison to shut down
Speaker 2: a host's immune system, allowing their growing spawn to develop
Speaker 2: inside the host unopposed. In a matter of hours, perhaps
Speaker 2: aided by the consumption of additional biomass and even metals,
Speaker 2: the xenomorph chest burster develops into a full grown adult,
Speaker 2: standing a good eight feet or two point four meters
Speaker 2: in height. Glistening and black, the bipedal xenomorph boasts a
Speaker 2: number of features that indeed make it worthy of the
Speaker 2: moniker perfect organism. It seems to benefit from a dual
Speaker 2: skeletal system, both indo and exo, as well as caustic
Speaker 2: blood that burns anything that might injure it. They're fast,
Speaker 2: They're stealthy. They attack with vicious claws, spiked tail, razor
Speaker 2: sharp teeth, and a secondary jaw that launches piston like
Speaker 2: to puncture prey, often compared to the phar angial jaws
Speaker 2: of the moraeel. Yet while the eel uses this adaptation
Speaker 2: to pull in prey, the xenomorph seems chiefly concerned with
Speaker 2: killing and subduing its prey, either for transformation into an
Speaker 2: ovomorph or in preparation for a xenomorph Queen's eggs. A
Speaker 2: loane An adult xenomorph betrays cunning and a fair amount
Speaker 2: of vicarious learning and problem solving, and within a hive context,
Speaker 2: they may benefit from emergent intelligence or some manner of
Speaker 2: hive mind. They have even been observed to exploit human technology,
Speaker 2: at least to a limited degree. To quote the android Ash,
Speaker 2: we are left with a survivor, unclouded by conscience, remorse,
Speaker 2: or delusions of morality. It may constitute the ultimate creation
Speaker 2: of the Engineers, or that of the rogue android David.
Speaker 2: It may also be the true form of a creature
Speaker 2: that inspired the Engineers in their biotechnological p suits, still
Speaker 2: dominant in the dark reaches of the galaxy, or resurrected
Speaker 2: via the mad research of a demented, vengeful mind. We
Speaker 2: don't know, We may never know, and it seems entirely
Speaker 2: likely that we should never have left the Earth to
Speaker 2: begin with. That's it for the Alien Monster Facts series,
Speaker 2: but depending on what the new film Alien Romulus opening
Speaker 2: this weekend has to show us, I may be back
Speaker 2: for one more episode to discuss its monsters, so we'll see.
Speaker 2: Tune in for additional episodes of the Monster Fact the
Speaker 2: Artifact or Animalia Stupendium each week on Wednesdays. As always,
Speaker 2: you can email us at contact at stuff to Blow
Speaker 2: your Mind dot com.
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