Das Binntal ist ein wahres Eldorado für Mineraliensammler und -liebhaber. Es gibt wohl kein anderes Gebiet in den Alpen, welches so vielseitige und weltweit einzigartige Vorkommen auf engstem Raum aufweist, wie dieses vom Massentourismus noch weitgehend verschonte Alpental. Hinzu kommt noch eine besonders artenreiche und üppige Flora, welche sich hier auf äußerst abwechslungsreichen Gesteinen entwickeln konnte.

AUSTIN, W. E. N. & JAMES, R. H. Biogeochemical controls on palaeoceanographic environmental proxies: an introduction

JAMES, R. H. & AUSTIN, W. E. N. Biogeochemical controls on palaeoceanographic environmental proxies: a review 

WILLIAMS, R. J. P. Some fundamental features of biomineralization 

ZEEBE, R. E., BIJMA, J., HOЁ NISCH, B., SANYAL, A., SPERO, H. J. &WOLF-GLADROW, D. A. Vital effects and beyond: a modelling perspective on developing palaeoceanographic proxy relationships in foraminifera 

PEARSON, P. N. & BURGESS, C. E. Foraminifer test preservation and diagenesis: comparison of high latitute Eocene sites 

Since antiquity, gold has been valued for its scarcity, beauty, and resistance to corrosion. Gold is the best known of all native elements and the most likely to be found in a metallic state (Pough 1991). It is the universal standard of value and the common medium of exchange in world commerce (Koschmann and Bergendahl 1968). Gold is almost everywhere considered to be the symbol of everything precious and of enduring value because of the effort required to extract it from nature, and because of its scarcity relative to other metals (Petralia 1996; Merchant 1998). Gold was known and highly valued by the earliest civilizations:

The basic structural building block of the biomarkers is the isoprene unit (Figure 1A). The end closer to the methyl branch is called the "head/' and the other end is the "tail." Compounds formed biosynthetically from isoprene units are called "isoprenoids." Two isoprene units joined head-to-tail (with minor modifications, such as hydrogenation of double bonds) form a monoterpane (Figure IB). Two monoterpanes (four isoprene units) linked together form a diterpane, whereas six isoprene units can be joined either to form a sterane or a triterpane, depending upon how the linking is accomplished.