Smith J M, Brown R L
Theor Popul Biol. 1986 Oct;30(2):166-79. doi: 10.1016/0040-5809(86)90031-6.
If being larger than competing conspecifics is important for fitness, then an unstable escalation of body size may result. In asexual populations, a cycling of sizes can occur but for sexual diploids, an irreversible size increase is more likely. Several factors can produce a stable distribution of sizes, but a single body size or even a narrow range of sizes cannot be stable. For example, enough environmental variance can produce stability without any genetic variability in the population. Or, with no environmental variance, a high cost of fighting between similar sizes or, for diploids, an increasing mortality with size may lead to a stable distribution of sizes. A game theory model is used to investigate the existence and form of a stable distribution of body sizes in a population.
如果比竞争同种个体体型更大对适应性很重要，那么可能会导致体型的不稳定升级。在无性种群中，体型可能会循环变化，但对于有性二倍体来说，体型更有可能出现不可逆的增大。有几个因素可以产生稳定的体型分布，但单一的体型或甚至狭窄的体型范围不可能是稳定的。例如，足够的环境方差可以在种群没有任何遗传变异的情况下产生稳定性。或者，在没有环境方差的情况下，相似体型之间战斗的高成本，或者对于二倍体来说，随着体型增大死亡率增加，可能会导致稳定的体型分布。一个博弈论模型被用来研究种群中体型稳定分布的存在性和形式。
