How did the facehugger grow to full-sized xenomorph?
In the movie Alien (1979), the first alien we see is the facehugger. It is only the size of a baseball mitt.
A few scenes later, the offspring bursts out of a crewmember's chest. (Thanks to Johnny Bones for reminding me of that in his answer.) It is the size of a adult human's arm.
When we see the alien next, a few hours later, it has grown larger than the average human.
Is there an in-universe explanation how the alien gained so much mass? Did it eat food that was aboard the ship?
Best Answer
First of all, the Facehugger is a different alien. It's job is to find a host and lay an egg (much like a parasite), and the egg then hatches from inside its host. The newly hatched alien then kills several people and grows in size, although they never specifically show any interim iteration as I recall. Presumably it just grows at a faster rate than humans, which isn't unusual (think "elephants"...).
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How does a Chestburster turn into a Xenomorph?
Arguably the most biologically intriguing stage of the Xenomorph's life cycle, the Chestburster is not implanted into the host as an embryo but is in fact akin to a cancerous growth; it begins as a tumor that causes the host's body to literally construct the infant creature from its own biological material.How long does it take for a Xenomorph to grow?
They grow from embryo to adult in about 2-3 hours max. However a queen may have taken 6-7 hours.What would happen if a facehugger attached to a Xenomorph?
Facehugger. As the name implies, this Xenomorph will hug your face\u2014but not as a display of affection. This long-tailed, crustaceous alien shoves a slimy appendage down its victim's throat to impregnate them with an alien embryo. It then detaches from the new host and dies shortly afterward.How does the Chestburster grow?
Growth. After emergence, Chestbursters grow incredibly rapidly \u2013 the Alien aboard the Nostromo reached adulthood mere hours after being born. They will immediately seek a place to hide, subsequently consuming organic materials and raw metals to increase their mass.Xenomorph Life Cycle
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Answer 2
I've always suspected the xenomorphs have some ability to draw carbon out of the air, similar to what plants do with photosynthesis, because they often seem to grow without eating sufficient mass to account for their size.
Answer 3
I don't think it gets explained. But dramatically, it does make it scarier in first movie when they go looking for the chest burster they don't realize its morphed into this huge monster. I was so busy being scared (and I saw the movie the first time in the theater when it came out in the 80s) I didn't think about it.
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