Selection often favours large bodies, visible as Cope's rule over macroevolutionary time − but size increases are not inevitable. One understudied cost of large bodies is the high number of cell divisions and the associated risk of oncogenic mutations. Our elasticity analysis shows that selection against a proportional increase in size becomes ever more intense with increasing body size if cancer is the sole selective agent. Thus cancer potentially halts body size increases even if no other constraint does so. We then provide multicellular realism with potentially sexually dimorphic body sizes and traits that control cell populations from zygote to maturity and beyond (ontogenetic management). This shows sexual conflict to extend to ontogeny; sexual dimorphism in mortalities and other life history measures may evolve even in the absence of any ecological causes underlying size- or sex-dependent mortality. Coadaptation of ontogenetic management and body size is required for substantial increases in size.

中文翻译：

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癌症风险和性冲突是身体发育的制约因素

选择通常偏爱大型物体，这在Cope关于宏观进化时间的规则上是显而易见的-但尺寸的增加并非不可避免。大型尸体的一项被低估的成本是大量的细胞分裂以及相关的致癌突变风险。我们的弹性分析表明，如果癌症是唯一的选择剂，则随着体型增加，针对体型成比例增加的选择将变得更加激烈。因此，即使没有其他限制，癌症也可能阻止体重增加。然后，我们提供具有潜在性二态性体型和特征的多细胞现实，这些特征和特征控制着从合子到成熟及以后的细胞群体（本体控制）。这表明性冲突扩展到了个体发育。死亡率和其他生活史测量中的性二态性可能会进化，即使没有任何潜在的大小或性别依赖性死亡的生态原因。要使体型显着增加，就需要对个体发育管理和体型进行配合。