Gondwana, vicariance biogeography and the New York School revisited

The many methods of biogeographic analysis proposed in recent years generat e artefactual results that impede understanding, discovery and progress. El iminating geographic paralogy from data reduces or eliminates artefactual i nterpretation. Recent cladistic studies of extant Nothofagus agree in showi ng only three informative nodes relevant to intercontinental relationships. In cladistic representations of global distributions, Gondwana is at or ne ar the base of the geographically informative nodes, which force Gondwana t o appear as a centre of origin of modern life in general. Centres of origin are artefacts of comparison based on geographically uninformative and para logous nodes. Postmodern revivals of dispersalism fail to acknowledge, expl ain, avoid, learn from and improve on the artefactual centres of origin of the 20th century dispersalism, as represented particularly by the New York School: W.D. Matthew (1871-1930), K. P. Schmidt (1890-1957), G. G. Simpson (1902-1984), P. J. Darlington, Jr (1904-1983) and G. S. Myers (1905-1985).