Definition of the word life cycle

The term "life cycle" refers to the series of stages that an organism goes through from its birth (or beginning) to its death. This cycle varies widely among different species of living things. The term was coined by British naturalist Charles Darwin in his book "The Variation of Animals and Plants Under Domestication" in 1868. The concept of a life cycle builds upon the works of earlier scientists, including the French biologist Jean Baptiste Lamarck and the German zoologist Ernst Haeckel, who had developed systems of classifying and describing the different stages of growth in various organisms. Darwin's use of the term "life cycle" clarified and consolidated these ideas, emphasizing the importance of understanding the entire developmental process of an organism as a unified and interconnected whole. Today, the study of life cycles is a fundamental part of biology and ecology as it helps us to better understand the evolution, ecology, and conservation of living things.