Shot from mother's boy in the early stages of life (6)
I believe the answer is:
embryo
'life' is the definition.
The answer and definition can be both animals as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's a link between them I don't understand?
'shot from mother's boy in the early stages of' is the wordplay.
I cannot quite understand how this works, but
'boy' could be 'em' and 'em' is found in the answer.
'of' could be 'o' and 'o' is present in the answer.
This may be the basis of clue (or it may be nonsense).
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for embryo that I've seen before include "Pre-foetus stage" , "new development" , "Early stage in development of animal or plant" , "First stage of life" , "Offspring in the early stages of development" .)