Assilinen
Along the Geophenomena Trail from Habergschwänd to Talalpsee (approx. 2km) there are rocks with an age difference of up to 100 million years. All of them were formed as deposits on the bottom of a sea. Most of them are limestone. In various places, they contain fossilized former sea creatures.
Assilines are single-celled, lenticular aquatic animals whose calcareous shell forms a system of many spirally structured chambers. These petrified animals are responsible for the many whitish spots in the so-called "Assiline Green Sandstone".
Assilines belong to the nummulites or greater foraminifera, which are characteristic of the geological period of the Tertiary. The Tertiary began 65 years ago and ended 2 million years ago. At the beginning of the Tertiary, most species became extinct, apart from the dinosaurs. This mass extinction poses a mystery to researchers and, according to current knowledge, is associated with a meteorite impact.
One species of assiline still lives in the Red Sea today.
