Division of labour is a key feature of many social systems, but how it emerges from initially identical individuals remains unclear. This paper uses a model showing that resource sharing among initially identical individuals spontaneously leads to division of labour. Without sharing, individuals alternate between foraging and other tasks. However, when non-foraging individuals receive shared resources, this pattern is disrupted, leading to task specialization. Nutritional differences, stemming from foraging metabolic costs or dominance during sharing, reinforce this division of labour. The model suggests a mechanism for the self-organized emergence of division of labour in various biological systems, including the evolutionary transitions to eusociality and multicellularity.

Jan J. Kreider, Thijs Janzen, Abel Bernadou, Daniel Elsner, Boris H. Kramer, Franz J. Weissing