What Is a Life Cycle?

A life cycle simply means

the stages of life.

For example, a human life Baby

cycle would look like this:
Child

Adolescent

Elderly Adult
 Do All Animals Have the Same
Life Cycle?
Not all animals go through the same changes throughout their life cycle, but
most animals go through what’s called the simple life cycle. The simple life
cycle has just three steps!

•They are born (birthed or hatched).

•They are young.

•They are adults

 Chicken Life Cycle

A chicken goes through a

simple life cycle:

Egg Chick Chicken

 Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis means that an animal goes through a very big
change in their life cycle. They look completely different when they
are born to how they look when they are adults! Most animals that
go through metamorphosis are amphibians and insects.

Do you know of an animal that goes through

metamorphosis?
 Amphibians
Amphibians go through more steps in their life cycle than a chicken does.
For example, the life cycle of a frog has 5 steps!

Eggs
Frog

Tadpole
Froglet

Tadpole with legs

 Insects
Just like amphibians, insects go through more than 3 steps in their life cycle too.
Let’s take a beetle for example.

Eggs Larva Pupa Young Beetle Adult Beetle

 Life Cycle
Think of your favourite animal. Can you guess its life cycle?