Aliens are frequently depicted in Hollywood as otherworldly, monster-like creatures, yet they may have more in common with humans than we once assumed.
According to a new study from Oxford University scientists, aliens are molded by the same evolutionary processes and mechanisms that shape humans.
Natural selection, as described by Charles Darwin, is a process through which organisms that are best adapted to a given environment are more likely to survive and pass on their genes to their children.
According to the researchers, aliens, like humans, go through natural selection and grow to become fitter and stronger over time.
The report also provides precise predictions regarding complicated aliens’ biological makeup.
“Aliens will have a similar nested hierarchy of units,” said Sam Levin, a researcher at Oxford’s Department of Zoology, in a blog post. “Just as you and I are made up of cells, which are made up of nuclei and mitochondria (the cell’s breathing engine), which are made up of DNA.”
“Aliens may not be comprised of ‘cells’ in the traditional sense, but they will be made up of pieces that were formerly free-living, and those parts, in turn, will be free-living – right down to the aliens’ hereditary material.”
However, just because aliens have developed in the same way as humans do not guarantee they will look like us or be made of the same materials.
Indeed, Levin proposes that instead of breathing oxygen and being mostly constituted of carbon, they may breathe nitrogen and be primarily built of silicon.
“Aliens may not have two legs or any legs at all,” he continued, “but their anatomy will be far more similar from an evolutionary viewpoint than we may have expected.”
“I don’t mean superficially acquainted when I say familiar. On the surface, they may appear to be unlike anything on Earth. On a more fundamental level, though, they will be similar: their bodies will be built similarly, and they will have shared an evolutionary past.”
The study was published today in the International Journal of Astrobiology under the headline “Darwin’s Aliens.”
