Lifespan

[Eidotemit]

How long could the xenos last? Theres little information as they, well, keep getting blown up at the end of each film after a matter of days, never seeing them past a few weeks.

In Alien it was clear that there was a burster from the pilot, we never saw it however. Was it in a different part of the ship? Did it leave the ship in search of hosts? Or did it die?

Aliens are a biological anomoly as they rapidly kill every resorce they have, and need in order to maintain/expand their species. Perhaps if they were bio-weapons made by the space jockeys, it would make sense that they were designed to kill everything around them and eventually die themselfs.

Further more, in AvP, the Queen was frozen in a hibernative state, this could have been a safty precaution by the preds, so she did have 100 years to break free, or perhaps it was in becuase the Queen would die over that time if not frozen.

Discuss.

[AtR]

The burster from space jockey could be the Queen who later laid eggs inside the ship then ran off somewhere(explains the hole in a ship). My guess.

[maledoro]

The burster from space jockey could be the Queen who later laid eggs inside the ship then ran off somewhere(explains the hole in a ship). My guess.

No... James Cameron had already said that the queen came from one of the colonists. In an unfilmed scene from Alien, the trio from the Nostromo paused near a rock formation that had the fossilized remains of the alien that had emerged from the Jockey. They weren't aware of it, and although Ash saw it on his monitor, he kept silent.

[AtR]

Ow, I'm just guessing from my own knowledge since I never read any of statements that producers/directors made.

[maledoro]

Even without that, I couldn't imagine an adult alien, even a queen, surviving for millennia; nevermind the eggs in the cargo hold possibly being held in an unnatural stasis.

[Darkness]

How long could the xenos last? Theres little information as they, well, keep getting blown up at the end of each film after a matter of days, never seeing them past a few weeks.

It was implied that the one in Alien was dying at the end. I think Ridley Scott said this in the commentary. It makes sense that the ones in Aliens were hibernating to extend their lifespan. So they don't live that long.

[SM]

Based on the four Alien flicks they live a minimum of five weeks.

If you throw AvP into the equation, looking at the Alien numbers at the end versus available hosts, they live for at least a century.

[Corporal Hicks]

Hibernation? I've always thought that Aliens could hibernate to survive longer. There's no basis in cannon for it, but it appears as if the Aliens in Aliens were "asleep" or something.

[SM]

That could simply be energy conservation.  There were no more hosts, so there was no work to be done.

[brad873]

consider this, the alien may take on the life span of its host, or add it to its original life span. so i say the human based aliens live up to 75 years or so

[azerty]

Why did the space jockey alien fossilize in the rocks?

[brad873]

i dont think it was fossilized in the way dinosors were. i think it just went hard over time. or maybe it had a carapase like the aliens

[maledoro]

consider this, the alien may take on the life span of its host, or add it to its original life span. so i say the human based aliens live up to 75 years or so

Then, using that, it would take the aliens not a few hours but over a decade to grow to adult size.

[The Ultimate Predator]

Based on the four Alien flicks they live a minimum of five weeks.

If you throw AvP into the equation, looking at the Alien numbers at the end versus available hosts, they live for at least a century.

I don't understand where you're coming from... You talking about the flashback scene, where there are loads of them?

[brad873]

consider this, the alien may take on the life span of its host, or add it to its original life span. so i say the human based aliens live up to 75 years or so

Then, using that, it would take the aliens not a few hours but over a decade to grow to adult size.

i sed they take the life span. they may be like land hermit crabs. many of them, after reachin maximum size, moultt to refresh there exo. some keep on growing but 60% stop. if an alien did that i may grow some more, then again, it may just replaice lost limbs and heal ingerd skin. and many aliens moult into the adult "form", but they are still young.