Editing Xenomorph (section)

===Appearance===
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When standing upright, the Aliens are bipedal in form, though, depending on their host species, they will adopt either a hunched stance or remain fully erect when walking, sprinting, or in hotter environments. Their overall stance and general behavior seem to result from the mixture of the respective DNA of the embryo and its host. They have a skeletal, [[biomechanical art|biomechanical]] appearance and are usually colored in muted shades of black, gray, blue or bronze. Their body heat matches the [[ambient temperature]] of the environment in which they are found, so they do not radiate heat, making them indistinguishable from their surroundings through [[thermal imaging]].<ref name="A2"/><ref name="AvP"/> In most of the films, adult Aliens are capable of running and crawling along ceilings, walls, and other hard surfaces.<ref name="A2"/><ref name="A3"/> They have great physical strength, having been shown to be capable of breaking through welded steel doors over time.<ref name="A2"/>

Aliens have segmented, blade-tipped tails. The sharp tip was initially a small, scorpion-like barb,<ref name="A1">{{Cite AV media|people=[[Dan O'Bannon]], [[Ronald Shusett]] (writers) and [[Ridley Scott]] (director)|title=[[Alien (film)|Alien]]|medium=DVD|publisher=[[20th Century Fox]]|date=1979}}</ref> but from ''Aliens'' onwards the blade design increased in size and changed in appearance to more closely resemble a slashing weapon.<ref name="A2"/><ref name="AvP">{{Cite AV media|people=[[Paul W. S. Anderson]] (writer/director)|title=''[[Alien vs. Predator (film)|Alien vs. Predator]]''|medium=DVD|publisher=[[20th Century Fox]]|date=2005}}</ref> From ''Alien Resurrection'' onwards, the tails have a flat ridge of spines at the base of the blade. This was introduced to help them swim convincingly,<ref name="Mutation">''Unnatural Mutation – Creature Design'', ''Alien Quadrilogy'', 2003, 20th Century Fox</ref> and was left intact in the subsequent crossovers. The original shooting script for ''Aliens'' and the novelization both featured a scene in which Lieutenant Gorman is "stung" by the barb tail and rendered unconscious; in the final cut of the movie, Gorman is knocked out by falling crates. As a weapon, the strength of the tail is very effective, having been shown to be strong enough to impale and lift a [[Predator (fictional species)|Predator]] with seemingly little effort.

They have elongated, cylindrical [[skull]]s with eyes underneath the "visor". In the novelization of ''Alien'', the character Ash speculates that the xenomorphs "see" by way of electrical impulse, similar to some fish's [[Ampullae of Lorenzini]]. This method is illustrated in the original [[Aliens vs. Predator (2010 video game)|''Alien vs Predator'' PC game]] and reused for the [[Predalien]] 28 years later. The Alien's [[pharyngeal jaw|inner set of jaws]] is powerful enough to smash through bone and metal.<ref name="AvP" /> How the creatures see is uncertain; in ''Alien 3'', a spherical lens was used to illustrate the Alien's [[point-of-view shot|point of view]], so, when the film was projected anamorphically, the image exhibited severe distortion. In the novelization of the movie ''Alien'', the creature is held mesmerized by a spinning green light for several minutes.

In ''Aliens'', the adult creatures have a more textured head rather than a smooth carapace. In the commentary for ''Aliens'', it was speculated that this was part of the maturation of the creatures, as they had been alive far longer than the original Alien, although James Cameron stated that he simply left the carapace off because he liked them better that way.<ref name="A2"/> The smooth design of the carapace would be used again in ''Alien 3'' and ''Alien Resurrection'', although made narrower with a longer muzzle and more prominent chin. This design would be kept in ''Alien versus Predator'',<ref name="Creature FX">{{cite book|author=Gillis, Alec| author2=Woodruff, Tom|name-list-style=amp|title=''AVP: Alien vs. Predator: The Creature Effects of ADI''|date=2004|page=128|isbn=1-84576-004-2|publisher=Titan Books|location=London}}</ref> and abandoned in ''Aliens vs. Predator: Requiem'' in favor of the ribbed design.

Throughout their appearances, human-spawned Aliens have been shown to have different numbers of fingers. In ''Alien'', the creature has [[webbed feet|webbed]], six-fingered hands. In ''Aliens'', the number of fingers is reduced to three, with two "paired" and a single, opposable thumb. The fingers are also shown to be much longer and more skeletal. In ''Alien Resurrection'', the number of digits is increased to four, with two long middle fingers and a pair of thumbs. This design is kept in the ''Alien vs. Predator'' films, though the hands were made bulkier in order to make the Aliens seem more formidable against the Predators.<ref name="AVPmaking">{{cite book | author=Alec Gillis | author2=Tom Woodruff Jr. | name-list-style=amp| title = ''Alien vs. Predator: The Creature Effects of ADI'' | date = 2004}}</ref>

Aliens have been alternatively portrayed as both [[plantigrade]] and [[digitigrade]] organisms, usually relative to their hosts. Human-spawned Aliens were usually portrayed as having humanoid hind limbs, while in ''Alien 3'' the featured Alien sported double-jointed legs due to its quadrupedal host. This characteristic would be continued in ''Alien Resurrection'' for the human-spawned Aliens. Tom Woodruff, who had previously played the "dog-alien" in ''Alien 3'', described the human-spawned Aliens in ''Resurrection'' as feeling more like a dog than the previous creature, despite having been born from human hosts.<ref name="Beauties and the Beast">{{cite magazine|title=Beauties and the Beast|author=Hochman, David|magazine=Entertainment Weekly|date=1997-12-05|url=https://ew.com/article/1997/12/05/sigourney-weaver-suits-fourth-alien/|access-date=2008-01-31|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080106122006/http://www.ew.com/ew/article/0%2C%2C290562%2C00.html|archive-date=January 6, 2008|url-status=live}}</ref> The human-spawned Alien warriors would revert to a plantigrade posture in ''Alien vs. Predator''.