Socially Transferred Materials: Connecting Physiology, Ecology, and Evolution

Across the animal kingdom, individuals frequently transfer endogenously produced materials—such as milk, seminal fluid, eggs, skin secretions, and regurgitates—to conspecifics. These donor-produced socially transferred materials (STMs) carry complex biochemical components that can directly influence the physiology, behavior, and fitness of recipients. Although STMs have evolved independently across diverse taxa, their shared capacity to mediate social interactions, reproduction, development and adaptation reveals an underappreciated axis of biological organization. By uniting systems traditionally studied in isolation (ranging from reproductive biology to parental care and microbiome ecology) the STM framework highlights general principles linking social behavior with molecular and evolutionary processes.
This session introduces the emerging concept of STMs to a broad scientific audience. We will showcase recent research emphasizing the diversity, mechanisms, and evolutionary consequences of socially transferred materials across animals. By connecting researchers across disciplines, the session aims to establish a shared conceptual foundation for investigating how socially transferred materials influence biological function, adaptation, and biodiversity.