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Ovomorph (Xenomorph Egg) - Explained (Alien Lore)

The Ovomorph, or better known as the alien egg, is the first stage of the xenomorph life cycle, they act as a vessel to provide both protection and life support for the facehugger inside. They are very durable with their leathery outer skin being highly resistant to both cuts and blunt attacks, usually requiring the use of a flame-unit or grenade launcher to destroy them.
One egg will typically contain one facehugger, but another type named hyperfertilised eggs have been seen to support as many as four.

They stand roughly 3 feet, or 1 metre in size, are egg shaped in appearance and are blackish brown in colour, with four petals on top which will open up revealing the facehugger inside.

The Ovomorphs outer skin contains a sensory organ able to sense when a suitable host approaches, able to taste them in a similar fashion to how a snakes tongue works.
Once a host is detected, the top opening of the egg will open up by peeling back the four petals on top, allowing the facehugger inside to propel itself outwards and attach itself onto them.

If given enough time and if they remain undisturbed, the eggs will grow root-like tendrils out from their base, it is possible that these appendages could act like the roots of a plant, absorbing nutrients to further prolong the life of the facehugger inside, or one other theory is that they merge together with the roots of other eggs, creating a shared consciousness almost; enabling a form of communication between them, allowing for only the closest egg to open if only a single host approaches, saving every egg in the vicinity from opening up unnecessarily.

There are two known ways an alien egg is created; the most common method is for them to be laid by an alien queen through an eggsack; or alternatively if no Queen is present yet; through "Eggmorphing", where a Drone will capture a host and attach them to the resin on a hive wall, which will then bond to the host and transform them into an Ovomorph, allowing the life cycle to continue.

There is another variation known as a Pretorian Egg, or sometimes known as a Royal Egg, which is larger and darker in colour, and houses a Royal facehugger, which after impregnating a host, will create pure-strain xenomorphs, starting out as a praetorian, which can then change into a Queen, a carrier or a ravager as needed.

Some instances where Ovomorphs have been observed are inside the Derelict spaceship on LV-426, the xenomorph hive inside the Weyland-Yutani colony Hadleys Hope, the Antarctic Pyramid beneath Bouvetoya Island and a variant created by the rogue android David and his experiments on Planet 4.


thoughts/trivia

So that was the Ovomorph AKA the alien egg, I think they have a really interesting design and are one of the most iconic things in the alien franchise.

some interesting trivia about the egg in the first movie is that the interior of it was actually made of a cows stomach lining. The look of the inside of it always reminded me of uncooked chicken, so I guess I wasn't too far off.
And the movement where we see the facehugger inside was done by the director himself Ridley Scott, he had washing up gloves on his hands and stuck them up inside it and moved his fingers about.
I always love learning about the different tricks they'd use to make special effects back then, they always seemed to come up with really creative and imaginative ways to make the effects in older films, unlike today where they just go the lazy route with CGI.

Originally in the first movie the eggs were created by eggmorphing, which is where instead of being laid by a Queen, the alien would turn the bodies of its victims into new eggs to continue the life cycle, this happened in a Cut Scene that was added back into the directors cut. but in the sequel they introduced the Queen which laid the eggs instead.
I think I heard that the people who made the first movie including HR Gieger who did the creature design didn't like this addition and it wasn't how they envisioned it when they made the first film. while I do like the Queen I do see their point though as the xenomorphs were kinda retconned a bit in the sequel to be more hive-insect like, like ants or bees, I think this made them feel a little bit too familiar and a bit less alien, and I also wasn't a fan of how from this point onwards people started referring to them as 'bugs' and how they were seemingly weak alone and only strong in numbers, I like it more when an individual alien is deadly by itself.

Something that's often debated is the mist that hovers over the eggs in the first movie, where some say it's made by the eggs themselves, and others say it's artificially put there by the Engineers who were transporting them, acting as a stasis. I kinda like the former explanation as it would explain why the eggs are still alive even after the dead Space Jockey has been fossilised.