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“…there is no more positive guide to the past occupa-tion of any area by a particular species [than the discovery of fossils]. Nevertheless, we may garner a great deal of information from … genecological studies of well-chosen species… ” Baker (1959). Over the past few decades, Quaternary paleoecologicalstudies have provided an impressive global database of pollen and macrofossils. Not only are these fossil records essential for detecting past species distributions (Baker 1959), but they have also played a key role in test-ing ecological theories and evaluating model predictions of climatic and biotic changes, from the past and into the future. For example, fossil data have provided some of the most compelling evidence supporting Gleason’s notion that species behave individualistically in community assemblages (Davis 1976; Webb 1987). Such data offe