Scientifically, the term buffalo is incorrect for the North American species; its proper Latin name is Bison bison. However, common usage has made the term buffalo an acceptable synonym for the American bison. (from The American Buffalo in Transition, by J. Albert Rorabacher.).
Life cycle. Life cycle, in biology, the series of changes that the members of a species undergo as they pass from the beginning of a given developmental stage to the inception of that same developmental stage in a subsequent generation.
A life cycle is a series of changes that happens to all living things. Every life cycle is the same for every generation. For instance, a fly's life cycle begins as a fertilized egg. The egg develops into a fly, which grows until it fertilizes an egg or lays a fertilized egg of its own. The life cycle then begins again with the new fertilized egg.