All living organisms, flora or fauna, undergo the same chain of life events from birth to death. The life cycle of any species includes all the living changes the organism undergoes from the beginning of their developmental stages to the end of their adult stages. The life cycle of a plant is different from the life cycle of an animal, but in the end they all start from birth and end at death.
List of Life Cycles
Why Should We Study Life Cycles?
Many plant species depend on animal species in terms of reproduction, for example, pollination in plants would not occur without bees assistance. Similarly, many animal species cannot develop or reach maturity without feeding on plants. Even human beings are carnivorous; who consume several other living organisms to survive their living years. Thus, we see how all the life cycles of living organisms are interdependent on each other for survival.
Even though it’s a big cycle, growth and development phases vary for all living species. For example, the life cycle of bacteria is finished within a single generation; where fission of the existing cell occurs, the cell grows to maturity and then splits into two new organisms and thereby completes its life cycle.
Similarly, certain species live the majority of their lives as nymphs. For example, the cicada species of insects sometimes live their nymph stage as long as 17 years and survive for about 24 hours when they reach adulthood. Whereas elephants take about 15 years to mature and then survive 30 years as adult elephants. But life expectancy also depends on the favourable environmental conditions.
When a living organism dies, a new organism replaces them, and this ensures the survival and existence of that species. The life cycle of any organism is the same, where it either survives or produces new generations to continue the chain of life stages. This chain of life stages continues through time until they reach adulthood and reproduce new generations.
In this section, you will learn all the different kinds of life cycles in the living world. A few life cycles we have our life cycle of a butterfly, life cycle of a snake, life cycle of a grasshopper and so on.
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