Re: Bird diversification through time

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

> Here we present, analyse and  map the first complete dated phylogeny
> of all 9,993 extant species of birds

That's a supertree, right? :-/

> We find that birds have  undergone a strong increase in
> diversification rate from about 50 million years ago to the near
> present.

...One does not simply calculate diversification ( = cladogenesis) rates 
from a tree that only contains extant taxa. That would amount to 
assuming an extinction rate of 0, which is (alas) empirically wrong.

Does the paper try to do anything about this problem? I don't currently 
have access, and the connection in this hotel is usually too slow and 
intermittent anyway.