Board Thread:Warhammer 40k General Discussion/@comment-25618639-20150406151006/@comment-6078851-20150409160338

one benefit of utelising orkoid spores for tyranids - yes bioforms are created on orbiting bioships, but they still have to be transported to the surface, and if bioships are in orbit then war is already underway and AA-fire will bring down many transportees. if they utelised orkoid spores (obviously extensively engineered and improved) then no transportation would be required. vanguard elements of a hive fleet could be sent on ahead (as they already are) and seed a world with spores. such a world probably wouldn't even notice this seeding since it's tiny spores, and a few hours later there's an entire tyranid army already on the surface.

in regards to squigs having tyranid dna - if squigs have tyranid dna then shouldn't all orkoid life have tyranid dna? all orkoid life is deeply tied to the orkoid fungus, from which all orkoid life comes, and although i don't think it's stated anywhere wouldn't all orkoid life produce spores upon death? a simple explanation could be that at some time in the past a squig, or an ork, ate a genestealer. genestealers, being what they are, could have caused a co-mingling of ork and tyranid genomes once it was eaten, or, maybe a genestealer attempted to 'infect' an ork with its own genes but being unlike any other life in the galaxy orkoid life is maybe resistent to the 'genestealing' process. so the orks or squigs with the co-mingled genome die, spores are released, and the next cycle of orkoid life would have tyranid dna. i know it's lore but i'm starting to think that if, out of all orkoid life, only squids have tyranid dna then it doesn't make much sense...