| Life Cycles of Animals
The life cycle of an organism refers to the sequence of developmental
stages that it passes through on its way to adulthood. Mammals, reptiles,
amphibians, birds, fish, insects and other invertebrates--they each have
their own unique way of reproducing life. There is an amazing variety
of life cycles within the animal world. Surprisingly, only about 3% of
all animal species give birth to live young as part of their life cycle.
Most animals lay eggs.
Animals need to eat, to grow, to be safe, and to reproduce. This is all
part of the life cycle. Their bodies are adapted in a wonderful range
of ways to solve these problems of survival.
Sample some of the following activities to learn more about the life
cycle of animals.
Places To Go
The following are places to go (some real and some virtual) to find out
about animal life cycles.
Biodiversity
Programs from the Smithsonian
Visit the Smithsonian Institution and check out their Biodiversity Programs.
Because the life cycle of amphibians includes both time in water and time
on land, amphibians act as an early warning system for environmental problems.
According to this site, "what's happening to frogs today may very well
indicate what will happen to other living things tomorrow."
Life Cycle of a
Frog
Visit a pond and spend some time with tadpoles and learn about the life
cycle of frogs. Once tadpoles reach a certain length, their frog legs
begin to develop and their heads become larger. Their mouths widen and
their intestines becomes shorter as they prepare for a carnivorous diet.
The flow of blood to their tail is stopped and the tail quickly shrinks
and drops away.
Ant
Colony Cycle
Spend some time in an ant colony to learn about their life cycle.
 San
Diego Zoo
Pandas rarely breed successfully in captivity. Take a cyber trip to the
San Diego Zoo to learn about the life cycle of giant pandas.
American
Alligator
Virtually visit an alligator nest to learn more about the life cycle of
these reptiles. The temperature of an alligator's nest determines whether
the baby alligators will be male or female. If the nest is below 86 degrees
Fahrenheit, all the babies will be female. It it's above 93 degrees Fahrenheit,
all the babies will be male. Nests at temperatures in between will produce
both male and female alligators.
Corals
and Coral Reefs
Travel to a coral reef.The life cycle of coral is being disrupted by
petroleum products and other chemicals dumped near coastal waters.
American
Bald Eagle
Learn about the life cycle of some of the most magnificent birds in the
world.
People To See
Scientific
American
Ask the experts at Scientific American your questions about life science
and life cycles.
The Wild Ones
The biologists at the Wild Ones site can answer your questions about the
life cycles of animals. You can also read through an archive of past questions
and answers.
Franklin
Institute - Something Froggy
Get to know Frederick the Frog. Read his online book from the Franklin
Science Institute and learn about his early beginnings as an egg, a tadpole,
and a grownup croaker.
Dallas Jackman - djackman@deseretonline.com
Mr. Jackman, a retired Granite school teacher, co-authored a textbook
along with Linda Pearson about the animals of Utah. The textbook is called
Outdoor Biology. Students are welcome to email him their questions about
Utah animals.
 E.B.
White Home Page
Visit with E.B.White or spend time with his Charlotte the spider. When
Charlotte's baby spiders hatch from their egg sac and go wafting off in
the wind, it's all part of the life cycle of a spider.
The
City Naturalist - Earthworms
Chat with an earthworm. They are essential to the health of plants because
they aerate the soil, add nutrients to the soil from their castings, and
help recycle organic matter. They also have an interesting and unusual
life cycle.
Rachel
Carson
Spend some time with Rachel Carson. Her book, Silent Spring, was instrumental
in educating us about the dangers of pesticides and how they can affect
the life cycles of many kinds of wildlife.
Komodo
Dragon
Carefully visit with a Komodo dragon and find out about their life cycle.
They are the largest reptiles in the world. They are sometimes bad-tempered
and have a nasty bite. Their favorite snacks include deer, goat, wild
boar, and smaller Komodos. According to this site, the teeth of a Komodo
are " large, curved and serrated and tear flesh with the efficiency of
a plow parting soil." When they grab their prey, they bite them (of course),
and the bacteria in the mouth of the Komodo dragon infects the prey. Even
if the prey manages to get away, they usually die from blood poisoning
within 1-2 days, and the Komodo dragon tracks them down and eats them
anyway.
Things To Do
MonarchWatch
Spend some time with a butterfly egg, larva, pupa, and adult and learn
about the life cycle of a butterfly.
 Children's Butterfly Site
Print these reproducible pages about the life cycle of monarch butterflies.
By the way, birdwing
butterflies are the biggest butterflies in the world. They live in
the rainforests of southeast Asia and Australia and have a wingspan of
about 11 inches
PBS
- Intimate Strangers : Unseen Life on Earth
Check out the life cycle of microbes.
Molecular
Virology
Viruses have a life cycle that is different than most other living things.
They are kind of like parasites because they enter living plant, animal,
or bacterial cells and make use of the host cell's chemical energy and
its protein and nucleic acid to replicate themselves. Viruses usually
are too small to be seen with the light microscope and must be studied
by electron microscopes. The images at this site are computer visualizations
of viruses.
What
the Heck Is an Egg Yolk
Find out how chicks develop within an egg.
 American
Egg Board
The people who bring us the Incredible Edible Egg advertisements have
an interesting site with everything you ever wanted to know about chicken
eggs. The color of chicken eggs comes from pigments in the outer layer
of the shell and may range in color from white to deep brown. The breed
of hen determines the color of the shell. Breeds with white feathers and
white ear lobes lay white eggs; breeds with red feathers and red ear lobes
lay brown eggs. The average laying hen lays 257 eggs a year.
Ostrich
Ostriches make a communal nest and many females lay their eggs there.
Both males and females take turns incubating the eggs. Ostrich eggs are
about the size of cantaloupes and are the largest eggs produced by any
animal living today. Their shells are also very thick and strong. An adult
human could stand on one without breaking it! (For health conscious individuals, ostrich
meat is very desirable. It has less calories, less cholesterol and
less fat than skinless chicken or turkey. It is 99% fat free, high in
protein, has virtually no shrinkage when cooked, is easy to prepare and
is recommended by the American Heart Association.)
 Koala Life Cycle
Learn about the life cycle of marsupials. The word marsupial comes from
the Latin word marsupium which means "pouch". What is a baby koala called?
Tasmanian
Devil
Tasmanian devils are also marsupials. They live on the island of Tasmania. Their pouch faces backwards--the
opening is towards their tail.
 Virtual
Frog Builder
Play this virtual frog builder game to learn about the life cycle of frogs.
Amphibian
Embryology Tutorial
Click through this online tutorial about the life cycle of amphibians.
Insects
- Metamorphosis
Metamorphosis refers to the way that insects develop, grow, and change
form. Metamorphosis actually means "change". There are two types of metamorphosis--incomplete
and complete. Learn more about the life cycles of insects.
 Scorpions
Scorpions are not insects. They are arthropods in the class Arachnida
and are related to spiders. Female scorpions keep their fertilized eggs
inside their bodies. Their babies are born live. Immediately after birth,
the tiny scorpions climb on their mother's back where she carries them
around until the first time that the young molt.
Bravos River
Rattlesnake Ranch
Learn about rattlesnakes and their life cycles. Rattlesnakes give birth
to live young rather than laying eggs like many other snakes. The species
of rattlesnake that live in Utah are Great Basin rattlesnake (the most
common rattlesnake in Utah), Mojave sidewinder, Hopi rattlesnake, Mojave
rattlesnake (also called green diamondback), speckled rattlesnake, panamint
rattlesnake, and the midget faded rattlesnake.
 Life Cycle of a Mosquito
Learn about the life cycle of mosquitoes and what conditions they need
in order to breed successfully. Bats like mosquitoes. Some bats can eat
up to 600 mosquitoes in one hour!
Nine-banded
Armadillos
Nine-banded armadillos have an unusual aspect to their life cycle. They
always give birth to four identical young, and these four babies always
develop from the same egg. Armadillos are the only known mammals that
regularly produce multiple young from a single egg.
Sponges
It used to be thought that sponges were plants. It's now known that they
are animals. The life cycle of some sponges includes a process called
budding. This occurs when a piece of the adult sponge separates and becomes
a new sponge.
 Flamingos
Flamingoes live in huge colonies. About 2 million flamingos gather around
Lake Nakuru in the Rift Valley, Kenya during their breeding time. Flamingos
mate for life. Both the male and the female help build a nest of mud.
The female lays only one egg. Both parents take turn incubating the egg.
When the egg hatches, both parents help in the raising of the baby.
Anglerfish
Anglerfish have an unusual life cycle. Most species of anglerfish live
in the deepest parts of the ocean. The females are up to 20 times bigger
than the males. The tiny males bite into the female's skin and fertilizes
her eggs. Then his mouth stays attached to her side for the rest of their
lives. His blood fuses with hers, and he is completely dependent on her
for food and oxygen.
The
Spider Life Cycle
Find out how male spiders get the attention of females. Baby spiders are
called spiderlings.
Teacher Resources
Hotlists from UEN provide internet sites to
visit to find out more about specific topics--in this case, the life cycle
of animals! (You can learn how to use this WWW
Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Online activities are a listing of internet
sites with fun, interesting, and educational tasks attached to each one.
(You can learn how to use this WWW
Activities tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Virtual Field Trips are teacher and student-created
tours of curricular topics. (You can learn how to use this UEN Virtual
Field Trip tool created by UEN for Utah educators).
Lesson Plan/Webquests/
Activities
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