Life Cycles
Most animals have males(boys) or females(girls). But not all animals reproduce or have young in the same way. You can look at how animals change as they go through stages of their lives.
OstrichBirds, reptiles, amphibians and some fish lay eggs. The ostrich is the largest bird. It lays big eggs.
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MammalsMammal give birth to young.
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We also reproduceHumans are mammals. We reproduce also.
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These stages are part of each animal's life cycle. The offspring or babies look very similar to the parent.
Lets look at some animal life cycles!
Mammals
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Mammals are born alive or hatched from an egg. Young mammals, look like adults but smaller. Often mothers will care for their young for some time. Adult mammals reproduce. |
Reptiles
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Mothers lay eggs, the eggs are not born yet. When they hatch, young reptiles look like their parents but smaller. Adult reptiles reproduce by laying eggs in a nest. |
Insects!
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Most insects go through complete metamorphosis where their body changes shape completely.
1. egg – not yet born 2. larva – young and eats a lot. Usually looks like some kind of worm. 3. pupa – does not eat, goes through big change, and often camouflaged 4. adult – grown up, reproduces, can have wings |
What are inherited traits?
Look at the picture of the family of dogs. The father has brown fur and the mother has golden light fur. Now look at the puppies. Some of them have the same color fur as the mother and some of them have the same color fur as the father. There are even some that have a different color fur. The truth is that animals get different things from both their parents. This is called inherited traits.
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This small horse looks like its parent. It has it's parent's traits. Traits are characteristics that the young horse got from the parent.
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Check out this video on animal life cycles
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See how some animal babies do not look like their parents. From tadpole to frog, egg to chicken, caterpillar to butterfly, and puppy to dog; learn the stages of, the life cycles of animals. |
Write about a life cycle
Think about an organism's life cycle. Use the paper below as your guide to writing about a life cycle. Look at how they wrote about their life cycle in steps. Do the same.
