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The Xenomorph incorporates each new species it assimilates into the next generation of Xenomorph. Do all of the different variations of Alien Xenomorph Queens lay the same basic facehugger egg, or is each generations egg dependant on the species before it? Simply put, do the eggs evolve along with each Xenomorph version or is it a one egg laid by all scenerio?

Ankit Sharma
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    "Assimilate"? Xenomorphs aren't Borg. Unless... Oh sweet Q, we're all going to die! – jwodder May 27 '12 at 18:51
  • We've seen that the adult gets some of its morphology from the host in which it gestated. Is there any evidence that anything carries over from the previous generation? Were the aliens in "Aliens" more humanoid than the alien in "Alien"? I don't think so. Personally I'd like to know what happens when the host is an amputee-- that experiment would tell us a lot, from a hard sci-fi perspective. – Beta May 28 '12 at 16:48
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    An amputee is not genetic, merely physical. – AJotr May 29 '12 at 03:09
  • There would be no reason for the aliens in "Aliens" to be more humanoid, unless an alien survived from "Alien" and became a queen laying new eggs, what had more human genetics in them. – AidanO May 29 '12 at 07:02
  • @AJotr, yes, that's my point: does the embryo scan the genome and imitate the developmental pathways (assuming that the host drove its own development and retains those genes), or does it infiltrate the body like Sacculina and imitate the morphology it finds (which would be the only way, if the above assumptions didn't hold in the host it found)? – Beta May 29 '12 at 14:35
  • @AidanO, I assumed that the colonists in "Aliens" brought only a few parasites (or one) from the derelict ship, one of them became a queen, and most of the adults we saw were from her eggs-- after two generations of human hosts. – Beta May 29 '12 at 14:36
  • P.S. The infiltration theory would explain how human scientists in the fourth movie could recreate the aliens (kinda) from a sample of host tissue, but that shouldn't count for much, because the fourth film shouldn't really be considered canon, because it really sucked. – Beta May 29 '12 at 14:43
  • @Beta I never considered that!! I've asked a separate question on the subject. – AidanO May 30 '12 at 10:13

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The incorporation happens on a genetic level, which is also why it is only a partial change as the Alien DNA remains dominant. The new species host is only somewhat assimilated, and it does not change the method of reproduction, which is again deeply genetic. The fact that the Alien is fundamentally an egg-layer with intensely dominant genes means it will always remain an egg-layer. The face-hugger is sort of the embryonic / larval stage of growth prior to major differentiation, so the host's features do not show up until after this stage. Hence, once a face-hugging egg-layer, always a face-hugging egg-layer.

AJotr
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