Alien: Ron Cobb's Derelict interior concept with alien pilot skeleton

leading from
development of the space jockey
and
Ron Cobb's art

1)  Ron Cobb's Alien Pilot
The idea of the pilot was developed further by Ron Cobb who created a picture of a three, four or five eye socketed non-humanoid skeleton, with a large cranium and a very small jawbone with no teeth to speak of,  and this is image satisfied Dan O'Bannon in terms of what he wanted.

1. Dan O'Bannon: "For the inside, Ron Cobb did the skeleton - what they later called the Space Jockey - and it was perfect. It had a large cranium, and four or five eye sockets. Very small jawbone - no teeth to speak of." (Cinefex 1, p64, column 2)

Ron Cobb's non humanoid skeleton (1977)

2) Inspiration from Star Trek:  Beyond The Farthest Star?
The Star Trek animated series had the story "Beyond The Farthest Star" which came out in 1973, and was novelised by Alan Dean Foster in 1974, and he would come to novelise the movies Dark Star and Alien amongst others. One might wonder if Dan took notice of this story and had Ron Cobb use the general idea of the type of alien creature in the transmission as the basis of his Alien pilot.

(see also: Derelict spaceship from the 1973 Star Trek the animated series episode , "Beyond The Farthest Star")

Alien pilot from" Beyond The Farthest Star" (1974) and Ron Cobb's alien pilot

Alien pilot from" Beyond The Farthest Star" (1974) in an ancient transmission.