Digimon hatch from types of eggs which are called Digi-Eggs (???? Dejitama?).

In
the English iterations of the franchise there is another type of Digi-Egg that
can be used to digivolve, or transform, Digimon. This second type of Digi-Egg is
called a Digimental (?????? Dejimentaru?) in Japanese. (This type of Digi-Egg w
as also featured as a major object throughout season 2 as a way of Digivolution
available only to certain characters at certain points throughout the season.) T
hey age via a process called "Digivolution" which changes their appearance and i
ncreases their powers. The effect of Digivolution, however, is not permanent in
the partner Digimon of the main characters in the anime, and Digimon who have di
givolved will most of the time revert to their previous form after a battle or i
f they are too weak to continue. Some Digimon act feral. Most, however, are capa
ble of intelligence and human speech. They are able to digivolve by the use of D
igivices that their human partners have. In some cases, as in the first series,
the DigiDestined (known as the 'Chosen Children' in the original Japanese) had t
o find some special items such as crests and tags so the Digimon could digivolve
into further stages of evolution known as Ultimate and Mega in the dub.
The first Digimon anime introduced the Digimon life cycle: They age in a similar
fashion to real organisms, but do not die under normal circumstances because th
ey are made of reconfigurable data, this data can be seen all throughout the sho
w. Any Digimon that receives a fatal wound will dissolve into infinitesimal bits
of data. The data then recomposes itself as a Digi-Egg, which will hatch when r
ubbed gently, and the Digimon goes through its life cycle again. Digimon who are
reincarnated in this way will sometimes retain some or all their memories of th
eir previous life. However, if a Digimon's data is completely destroyed, they wi
ll die.