Thank you for playing and this constructive statement. :)

Let me clear things up a bit. The original map was more realistic regarding the roundness of the earth that you mentioned. This was especially evident in the northern hemisphere. I ended up changing it to a more rectangular view by adding tiles in Siberia and Alaska. Also the point is not in a realistic projection of the land masses, rectangular or round, but unrealistic and playable in the best eye candy way possible. ;)

Initially, I placed a huge amount of horses in the Americas, which were completely removed later for the purpose of making it more historically correct. As one of the new Shoshone civ's special units now requires horses, it would have been odd to not at least have a small amount of them in North America. Civs like the USA and Brasil also have them in their starting area, as these civs originated from European colonies and therefore always had them. The only horse resource that can be found in South America is at Brasilian shores, while Oceania has none. Cattle is inherent to the Americas (bison). They are also rich of all kinds of strategic resources, including iron deposits. It's only fair and realistic to distribute it generously. ;)

The map is split along the Atlantic because the original (it's a conversion of Genghis Kai's GEM for Civ IV) was done this way. It doesn't matter in a game, however. If you start in Europe, the Americas still are west of you. It is also no false depiction of the earth btw, just a bit uncommon today (especially in the Western World), but known in East Asia and Oceania. The earth map that we know as normal is basically a eurocentric view.

Hey Hormigas, will you consider adding bison and cocoa to the Western Hemisphere, now that they've been added to the game?