Possible evidence for a large decrease in seawater strontium/calcium ratios and strontium concentrations during the Cenozoic

Few constraints exist on the major element chemistry of ancient oceans. Turritellid marine snails precipitate aragonitic shells and are abundant in the Cenozoic fossil record, and therefore may be ideal for reconstructing past seawater chemistry. Here we report strontium to calcium (Sr/Ca) ratios of modern and early Cenozoic turritellid shells that still retain an aragonitic mineralogy. By applying partition coefficients determined from modern specimens to data for Paleocene and Eocene shells, we calculate paleo-seawater Sr/Ca values. The high Sr/Ca values recorded in fossil shells may imply that seawater Sr/Ca ratios varied from at least 9.5–15.2 mmol/mol, much higher than modern average seawater values (8.6 mmol/mol). High paleo-seawater Sr/Ca ratios may indicate that substantial changes in the biogeochemical cycling of Sr have occurred over the past ~ 37 million years. A decrease in seawater strontium concentrations could have arisen from an increase in the proportion of weathered radiogenic silicate rocks relative to carbonates, reducing the riverine flux of strontium to the oceans, or changes in the exposure and erosion of aragonitic carbonates on tropical shelves due to variations in sea level.