Records of seawater chemistry help constrain temporal variations in geochemical processes that impact the global carbon cycle and climate through Earth’s history. Here we reconstruct Cenozoic seawater Sr/Ca using fossil Conus and turritellid gastropods.
Our favored seawater Sr/Ca scenarios point to a significant increase in the proportion of aragonite versus calcite deposition in shelf sediments from the Middle Miocene, coincident with the proliferation of coral reefs. We propose that this occurred at least 10 million years after the seawater Mg/Ca threshold was passed, and was instead aided by declining levels of atmospheric carbon dioxide.
Pdf of the paper available by clicking on these images of cone shells…
O'Dea Lab 
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