Re: Troodon again

["Dictator-for-life Calvin" <MWEDEL@gslan.offsys.ou.edu>]

>There has not been (as far as I know) a general trend throughout the
>Cenozoic in developing ever increasing large brain size.  In other words,
>mammals are (on the average) no brainier today then they were at any
>other time in the Cenozoic (expect possibly the Paleocene?). Based on his
>evidence as you presented, our hypothetical paleontologist would have been
>just as likely to predict a sapient species during the Miocene, of
>Oligocene; and he would have been WRONG.  

I haven't read the papers, but didn't Dale Russell posit an 
increasing brain size through time for vertebrates that would have 
produced a hominid brain-body ratio in the next 25 million years?  
Now, I am not supporting the originator of this thread in supposing 
that intelligent troodons with enriched iridium bombs precipitated 
the K-T extinctions, I'm just curious as to whether Russell's 
increasing intelligence trend is "real," and how it has been 
received.

Thanks,
Matt Wedel