9 Animals With Alien Superpowers

1. wasp rider

Video: Wikimedia Commons

Perhaps the most memorable feature of the alien monster from Ridley Scott's Alien is the way it reproduces. The monster lays eggs, larvae emerge from them, which inject alien embryos into suitable carriers, and they serve as incubators for new xenomorphs.

Wasp riders began to place their future offspring in living creatures longJ. b. Whitfield. Phylogenetic Insights into the Evolution of Parasitism in Hymenoptera / Advances in Parasitology before the exitAlien». These insects began to practice parasitism at least 247 million years ago. They lost their stingers and instead got sharp ovipositors.

The breeding scheme of the wasp rider is simple: flying upJ. E. Cohen, T. Jonsson, et al. Body sizes of hosts and parasitoids in individual feeding relationships / PNAS to a caterpillar, spider, beetle or some other invertebrate, we introduce a long thin pin into it and lay the eggs right inside. When the larvae hatch, they will eat their prey from the inside, then gnaw their way out, grow wings, and fly away.

2. Fronima

This crustacean, whose size does not exceed 2.5 cm, uses an even more brutal and heartless way of reproduction than wasps-riders.

Translucent at first fronimaMeet Phronima, The Barrel-Riding Parasite That Inspired The Movie Alien (Op-Ed) / Live Science finds a victim. As a rule, these are salps - chordate siphon-like animals that feed on phytoplankton.

Then the crustacean grabs the salpa with its claws, eats a hole in it, devours the internal organs, and instead of them lays eggs, as in an empty bag. Moreover, the phronima cynically carries with her a half-dead salpa, using it instead of a cradle for her offspring.

3. Dragonfly

Video: Bulanbeck / Public Domain

Remember the creepy extra jaw that xenomorph pulling Ellen Ripley in the face when he pinned her against the wall? This organ was not invented by filmmakers, but by Mother Nature.

Dragonfly larvae (nymphs) have a movable lip fused with the lower jaw - it calledb. K. Tyagi. Odonata: Biology of Dragonflies labrum, or mask. Using it, young dragonflies grab their victims - insects, worms, fish fry - and pull them to the mouth apparatus.

Adult dragonflies no longer need the labrum, it grows together with the head and loses the ability to move forward.

4. moray eel

Video: Liquid Motion / YouTube

These eels have long, spindle-like bodies and sharp predatory teeth. And moray eels can boast of two abilities at once, like a xenomorph.

First, it is an additional jawFor moray eels, two jaws better than one / The Sydney Morning Heraldwhich is deep in the throat. When the moray eel hunts, it opens its mouth wide, and an outgrowth with sharp teeth jumps out of the throat to grab and pull the prey inside.

Secondly, someJ. P. Rafferty. 10 of the world's most dangerous fish / Encyclopedia Britannica poisonous moray eels serumG. H. F. Nuttall. Blood Immunity and Blood Relationship blood, which can cause serious harm to health or even kill the one who eats them. Of course, toxic blood is not as tough as the metal-burning acid that flows in the veins of xenomorphs, but moray eels have enough.

5. Phrynosoma

The xenomorph facehugging larva in the movie Alien, as well as the adults in the sequels Alien 3 and Alien: Resurrection, have demonstrated the ability to spit their acidic blood at enemies from a distance. This is how it works and phrinosomaW. M. Winton. Habits and Behavior of the Texas Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum, Harlan. I / Copeia, she is a horned, or toad-shaped, lizard, when she needs to defend herself from pressing dogs and cats.

Only she shoots blood not from her mouth, but from her eyes. Which, you see, is much more brutal and harsher.

Lizard strainsG. A. Middendorf III, W. C. Sherbrooke, E. J. Brown. Comparison of Blood Squirted from the Circumorbital Sinus and Systemic Blood in a Horned Lizard, Phrynosoma cornutum / The Southwestern Naturalist eyes, the capillaries in their corners burst, and a stream of blood beats into the face of the enemy, discouraging him from any desire to attack. True, the blood is not acidic, but it tastes so disgusting that even the most notorious scavengers become ill.

6. Cobra

Unlike Frinozoi, cobras have ranged weapons that are not only frightening and disgusting, but also poisonous. Some species of these snakes, living in the savannas and forest regions of Africa and South Asia, know howN. Panagides, T. N. W. Jackson, et al. How the Cobra Got Its Flesh-Eating Venom: Cytotoxicity as a Defensive Innovation and Its Co-Evolution with Hooding, Aposematic Marking, and Spitting / Toxins shoot poison from fangs, and aim exactly at the eyes of the attacker.

This poison is strong enough to cause chemosis and corneal edema, followed by irreversible blindness. Cobras are able to spit it out at a distance of up to 2 meters.

7. cicadas

As you can see, the Alien designers borrowed a lot from insects: the external jaw, parasitism, the presence of a queen queen, eusociality and reproductive specialization, like in ants or os. The xenomorph's silicon exoskeleton was no exception.

In most invertebrates, the skeleton is also external, growing over the body like armor. For example, such shellInsect Potpourri: Adventures in Entomology equipped with cicadas.

It's pretty durable, you know, for an insect. It will not survive a meeting with a slipper, but it protects from other dangers of the microworld.

However, the exoskeleton cannot grow in size with the cicada. Therefore, when an insect wants to grow up, it sheds it and walks “naked” for a while until a new exoskeleton is formed. And the old one (it is called exuvium) after molting remains lying around idle. Just like a xenomorph.

8. Sea pike dog

Remember how the Alien larva opened its disgusting "petals" before sticking an ovipositor in the victim's mouth and wrapping its tail and spider legs around its neck? The sea pike dog from the class of ray-finned fish, also called the sarcastic fringehead, has exactly the same growths around the muzzle.

Only appliesM. Denny, S. Gaines. Chance in Biology: Using Probability to Explore Nature she does not want them to cling to a human face, but to scare away her own relatives during territorial disputes with her incredibly stern appearance. If the enemy does not give in to provocation, the fish begin to bite each other and fight until one of the combatants retreats.

The pike dog is omnivorous and quite smart. She is inclinedWeird & Wonderful Creatures: The Sarcastic Fringehead / American Association for the Advancement of Science use surrounding objects to survive and finds, for example, shelter in cans and bottles thrown into the sea. So that pollution the environment is more likely to benefit this tenacious monster.

9. mixina

As you know, xenomorphs love to excrete all sorts of disgusting liquids. Their favorite pastime is to sit on the ceiling in an ambush and drip slimy saliva on the heads of the unfortunate people passing below before pouncing on them.

But in the amount of mucus produced, the Alien can easily be killed by another animal, no less disgusting.

Mixina is a relative of the eel. Although she looks recallsThe world’s fastest shark is no match for a sack of flaccid hagfish skin / Popular Science, rather, an alien killer worm, those who tried it assured that it tasted like fish. And this is the only living creature in the world that has a skull but no backbone. But the main feature of the hagfish is its defense mechanism.

When they grab her, she startsv. Zintzen, C. D. Roberts, et al. Hagfish predatory behavior and slime defense mechanism / Scientific Reports secrete an incredible amount of fibrous protein mucus. The idea is that this substance will fill the predator's gills and mouth and suffocate him. Medium mixin maybeD. S. Fudge, N. Levy, et al. Composition, morphology and mechanics of hagfish slime / Journal of Experimental Biology produce up to 24 liters of such dirty tricks at a time.