Re: Starkov's theory and extinction

["David Marjanovic" <david.marjanovic@gmx.at>]

Found the original ref.:

JVP 20(3) September 2000 -- Abstracts p. 71A:

"CO-ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION: LARGEST THEROPODS AND LARGE SAUROPODS
        STARKOV, Alexei I., Institute of General and Experimental Biology,6
Sakhyanovoi St., Ulan-Ude 670047, Russia
When observing faunas of dinosaurs of the North American landmass, it is
striking that sizes of tyrannosaurids during the Campanian and Early
Maastrichtian did not exceed 10 m in lenght [sic] and 5 tons in weight.
Appearance of *Tyrannosaurus* in Late Maastrichtian, with its 12 [what about
14?] m length and no more than 6 tons in weight, has broken this
appropriateness. It may be connected with some qualitative changes of taxa
composition, namely appearance of sauropods which directed the natural
selection to the increase of sizes of tyrannosaurids. As a reaction, sizes
of their usual preys at the Early-and-Late Maastrichtian border increase too
(*Edmontosaurus*, *Torosaurus*, and *Triceratops* are larger than
Campanian-Early Maastrichtian genera by about 15-20%). As far as they were
more widely distributed tha[n] *Alamosaurus*, undoubtedly [...]
*Tyrannosaurus* had the same wide distribution as mentioned herbivores.
Presence in Asia of such large tyrannosaurids as *Tarbosaurus*, which
remains come from deposits of Santonian-Early Maastrichtian time, i.e.
earlier than its North American closest relatives, was due to simultaneous
presence of sauropods, such as *Nemegtosaurus* and its relatives.
        Did such co-adaptive evolution have analogies in other dinosaurian
faunas? Not always. First carnivorous dinosaurs, possibly when using other
hunting tactics (in packs which were later developed in relatively small
*Deinonychus*,  in contrast with solitary tactics in many large Cretaceous
predators), were not co-adapted in such a scheme. The Allosauridae in the
Morrison fauna might be co-adapted with diplodocids and brachiosaurids, but
they did not reach[...] yet a balance with them in size. The Chinese
*Yangchuanosaurus* seems already reached [sic] such carnivore-herbivore
(with *Mamenchisaurus*) balance, typical for Cretaceous predators. As a
possible illustration of that scheme may be co-adaptive pairs of large
theropods and sauropods of middle Cretaceous in Africa, North and South
Americas."

Not a word about extinction, though.