Recent research funded by Australian Government's Department of Climate Change has revealed that marine life has been found to cause the shell formation to be thinner. Modern shells during the research period were 30 to 35 per cent lighter than those formed prior to the industrial period.

The implication is that more of marine life could be potentially wiped out as the increase of carbon dioxide being pumped into the atmosphere, while at the same time that CO2 was absorbed by the ocean.