Animal Life Cycle

Animal Life Cycle

What Are Some Animal Life Cycles?

Life cycle of a seahorse

The life cycle of a seahorse is very unusual.

Although the female provides the eggs, the male seahorse carries them inside his body.

The eggs develop inside the male for two to six weeks.

Newborn seahorses look like small versions of their parents.

This video shows seahorses swimming and interacting.

Life cycles

• An animal's life cycle begins at birth.

• A life cycle is all of the changes that happen to an animal or plant until it reproduces.

• Many very different animals go through similar changes.

Life Cycles

These are people of all ages, from a baby to an adult.

The picture shows the changes that happen throughout our lives.

People grow and mature from babies to children, to adults.

Life cycle of a frog

Different animals have different life cycles.

Some young animals do not look like small versions of their parents.

Their bodies change even more during their life cycles.

For example, when a frog comes out of its egg, it has a tail and doesn't have any legs.

This is a red-eyed tree frog.

Red-eyed tree frog: eggs

• A female frog lays many eggs.

• This video shows the eggs of a red-eyed tree frog.

Red-eyed tree frog: tadpole

A tadpole is a young frog.

It hatches from an egg and has gills to take in oxygen from the water.

Newly hatched tadpoles live in the water and usually do not have any legs.

They have a tail, and part of their body is very much like a fish's fins.

The tail and fins help them swim.

Red-eyed tree frog: tadpole

The tadpole gradually grows rear legs and develops lungs.

Red-eyed tree frog: Adult Frog

As the tadpole continues to grow, it develops front legs and its head looks more like a frog's head.

Eventually, the tadpole develops into an adult that can lay eggs and repeat the cycle.

During its life cycle, a frog's body changes form. These changes are called metamorphosis.

Multiple Choice

Which choice best represents the life cycle of a frog?

• Egg, tadpole, adult

• Egg, chrysalis, young adult, adult

• Egg, adult

• Egg, larva, tadpole, adult

Life cycle of an alligator

Alligators and frogs both lay eggs.

The adult stages of these animals are similar.

However, a young alligator looks a lot like an adult alligator.

An alligator's body grows and develops, but it doesn't change form like a frog's body does.

Life cycle of a butterfly

Butterflies go through four stages during their life cycles.

The stages are egg, larva, pupa, and adult.

This process is complete metamorphosis.

The butterfly's life cycle begins with eggs laid by an adult.

A caterpillar larva hatches from the egg.

The larva is the second stage in the life cycle of an animal that goes through a complete metamorphosis.

Life cycle of a butterfly

When the caterpillar is done growing, it makes a silk shell, called a cocoon.

The caterpillar uses this cocoon to hold its body to a leaf or a twig.

Inside the cocoon, the caterpillar's skin will come off.

The hard skin that is left is called a chrysalis.

The chrysalis is a pupa.

While in the chrysalis, the caterpillar's body changes into an adult butterfly.

The adult butterfly comes out of the chrysalis completely different from the caterpillar.

The butterfly has gone through a complete metamorphosis.

Life cycle of a butterfly

This is a fully grown adult butterfly.

It will soon lay eggs to start the life cycle all over again.

Diversity

When two adult animals reproduce, the young animals maybe like their parents in many ways.

They are not exactly the same, though.

Because they can get some of their looks from each parent, they are unique.

This variety, or diversity, helps each kind of animal survive.

Multiple Choice

What is the first stage of a butterfly's lifecycle?

Multiple Choice

What is the second stage of a butterfly's lifecycle?

Multiple Select

What is the third stage of a butterfly's lifecycle?

Multiple Choice

What is the fifth stage of a butterfly's lifecycle?

Essential question review

The life cycle of an animal starts with birth.

The young animal grows and develops to maturity as an adult.

An adult can reproduce, or have young.

Then the cycle continues.

Essential question review

Different kinds of animals have different life cycles.

Frogs, for example, start out as eggs. Tadpoles hatch from the eggs and develop into adults.

Crocodiles also start out as eggs, but the eggs are laid on land.

Chicks hatch from bird eggs and develop into adults.

Butterflies start out as eggs. Caterpillars hatch from the eggs, turn into chrysalises, and then into adult butterflies.

Essential question review

Young animals will be the same as their parents and different in some ways.

As animals go through the life cycle, they reproduce.

The new animals will be different from the parents in some way, but they are basically the same.