PETM Event
When you are thinking adaptation, it always useful to have some kind of idea to start thinking from. This reference point may be useful for that purpose. If the average planetary temperature increases by 6 degrees C, we do have a paleoclimatic point of reference. Of course, flora and fauna were different (the dinosaurs had bought the farm about 10 million years before this event), and this "event" happened over a 20,000 year period instead of a few hundred years, but you get my drift...
Paleocene–Eocene Thermal Maximum (PETM), alternatively "Eocene thermal maximum 1 (ETM1) The last time we had a 6 degree C up tick in average planetary temperature.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Paleocene%E2%80%93Eocene_Thermal_Maximum
Stager, Curt, Deep Future: The Next 100,000 Years of Life on Earth, chapter 4, (2011).
Lots of detail:
Global change during the Paleocene-Eocene thermal maximum ,2006 PhD thesis of Appy Sluijs Utrecht University
http://igitur-archive.library.uu.nl/dissertations/2006-0906-200913/full.pdf
PETM intro video http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WEgcu27-kjk
Thanks to Curt for helping me find the time point.
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