What basic difference exists between the life cycle of higher plants and higher animals?

Answer 1

I got this from someone off of Yahoo. I think the answer has something to do with how the gametes are formed. In animals, the gametes are formed from through spermatogenesis in males and oogenesis in females. The process the cells undergo is meiosis. In plants however, the formation of gametes have a few more steps. The spore phase, gametophyte phase and finally gametes. So the basic differences that exists between the life cycles of higher plants and higher animals is how the gametes are formed. Higher animals have "one" basic step to forming gametes while higher plants have several.

Answer 2

The major difference is that higher plants undergo alternation of generations, where they have both a multicellular haploid and multicellular diploid stage, while higher animals have a dominant diploid stage. Additionally, plant reproduction often involves the transfer of male gametes through pollination, whereas animal reproduction typically involves internal fertilization.