Conceptual and analytical worldviews shape differences about global avian biogeography

In a recent paper, we generated a new time tree of modern birds and integrated it with biogeographic and palaeontological information to formulate a model for their biogeographic history. We postulated that modern birds originated in West Gondwanan continents, from where they dispersed around the world. Mayr suggested that our selective use of the fossil record may have biased our ancestral area reconstructions. We argue that the use of the fossil record must be selective in order to avoid the influence of its severe geographic bias: rock formations with numerous high‐quality fossil birds are found only in North America and Europe. An indiscriminate use of the avian fossil record would bias any biogeographic analysis towards these two continents. Our biogeographic model is perfectly consistent with the existence of diverse fossil avifaunas in the Eocene of North America and Europe because dispersion out of South America occurred earlier, in the Palaeocene.