Vita Michael Wachtler

He was born in 1959 in South–Tyrol (Italy) - San Candido, in the heart of the Dolomite Mountains. In his youth he participated at a lot of expeditions all around the world together with other crystal searchers and fossil hunters. These experiences resulted in a deep love for nature. As many others he was attracted to mountain–climbing but he turned his back to this field early in order to find his love “inside the mountains”.

Michael Wachtler discovered new forms of fossilized plants. He studied some of them in cooperation with European universities. So the important Voltzia dolomitica, a Triassic conifer and Bjuvia dolomitica, the ancestor of cycads.

Expeditions:
1981: India and Nepal
1983: Namibia
1985: Galapagos - Peru

1980 – 1990 Founder of several newspapers
 

Important discoveries:
1990: Voltzia dolomitica and Voltzia ladinica
Michael Wachtler discovers two new primitive species of conifers. The two represent an essential step in the development of this important group of plants. They stand for the deciding passage of the primitive conifers to the moderns of today which finally lead to the monkey puzzles and all the other species of conifers like the fir, the larch, the pine. He describes them together with the Dutch professor Han van Cittert.

Since 1990 Documentaries for television
He realised 60 films about adventurers, crystal searchers in the Alps for ARD, RAI, BBC, ORF and other European broadcast associations.

Important discoveries
1995: Bjuvia dolomitica and the beginning of the cycadees
In the year 1999 Michael Wachtler finds the arguably oldest assured petrified relics of this species in the Dolomites. These residuals document for the first time how this interesting genus has come into being. The cycadees or fern palms belong to one of the oddest plant families. They emerged out of nothing, dominated the world of plants in the times of the dinosaurs and are nowadays being repelled more and more.

1997: Dolomythos – the museum of Dolomites
Michael Wachtler found „Dolomythos“, a museum containing the most beautiful treasures of the Dolomites, It is a voyage in the reign of dinosaurs, the mysterious evolution of plants and masterpieces of nature's Art.

Since 1998 Exhibitions:
He also organized a lot of exhibitions about the mysterious genesis of the Alps; one of them which has been very successful, was dedicated to the fascinating history of “mountain-films”. Trento (1999) Torino (2000), Rosenheim (Lokschuppen 2001, München (2002), Berlin (2002), Rovereto (MART 2003), Bologna (2004 and 2005), Bard – Museo delle Alpi (2005)

Since 1998 author for several European publishers:
He is the author of more than 30 books. In English: The First World War in the Alps. Most of his books are edited in German and Italian. (The Great World War in the Alps, Ski History, Crystal Searchers).

Articles for magazines as National Geographic, Trekking, Alpin.
1999: Discovery of the quickly worldwide known “fossil repository Kühwiesenkopf” in the Dolomites of Braies/Prags. Soon it was classified as “Garden Eden of the primitive times”. After the big Permian-Triassic- Catastrophe during which about 90% of all creatures died out, a lot of new plants, fishes and land animals developed in this place.

1999: Megachirella wachtleri
Michael Wachtler discovers a new kind of dinosaur named Megachirella wachtleri. It resulted to be the ancestor of lizards and snakes.

2000: A new coelacanth

2002: Treasuries of nature
Together with the Carinthian Georg Kandutsch and other friends Michael Wachtler builds his first “treasuries of nature”. These are the “Tauernschatzkammer” (Treasury of the Tauern) in the Malta Valley, “Dolomythos” in San Candido, “Crystalles” in Coldrano and the gold-digger village in Heiligenblut.

Expeditions to the South-Seas to Vanuatu and its primitive people and volcanoes, (2002) to Kamchatka, the untouched Russian peninsula, (2003) to Australia and New Zealand on the trail of the gold diggers and the living fossils (2004).

2003: Masterpieces of Nature's Art
He realised „Masterpieces of Nature´s Art“.These are big slabs full of petrifactions which are supposed to express that the greatest artist of all is still nature. In various museums they are put up like drawings, e.g. Museum of Modern Arts in Rovereto (MART), Messner Mountain Museum.

He realised that the deep sense of his life lies within the studies and the discovery of nature itself and not in climbing mountains like monkeys. His book “Goldgrube Alpen” (treasure of Alps) can be described as a testament of love for all the people who have collected and searched for the mysteries of mountains and who like himself have lived the very special moment of finding spectacular crystals, dinosaurs and archaeological relics.

2003: The biggest gold finding of the Alps
Michael Wachtler and his friends Lino and Mario Pallaoro and Georg Kandutsch succeed in discovering the arguably biggest gold finding of the Alps in Brusson in the Aosta Valley. They recover about four kilos of pure gold.

2004: Michael Wachtler travels through Australia by the side of the gold diggers and concernes himself with the new discovered Wollemi Pine, a primitive species of conifer that has been considered obsolete for a long time.

2005: Through the undiscovered Dolomites
Michael Wachtler marches a thousand kilometers cross-country and off the beaten track through the Dolomites. He surmounts over a hundred thousand meters of difference in altitude. He meets famous writers, adventurers and others in order to discuss with them about the future of this area. During this trip he sensationally discovers the ancestors of today’s moonwort, a mystical fern plant.

2006: Critics of today’s society
Further publications about the mendacity and superficiality of today’s society, the madness about money and the senseless lifestyle will follow, like “Böses Buch vom braven Land” (“The bad book about the good country”)
Expeditions on the Comores and Madagascar.

2006: The great crystal caves
During a tour with the brothers Tomaschett from the Surselva he discovered with them various crystal caves that turned this finding into one of the best in the Alps.

2006: Expeditions to the “Women Island”, the Comores and Madagascar.

2007: The derivation of the dinosaurs
Michael Wachtler discovers some 240 million years old footsteps on the Piz da Peres in the Val Badia/Gadertal that mark the beginning of the first dinosaurs. He studies them together with Marco Avanzini and Rossana Todesco.

2008: Expedition to the hell of the Danakil Desert in Ethiopia and a journey to the primitive times to Svalbard.

2009: Journey to the forgotten land of gold and diamonds. Treasure hunt in the jungles of Venezuela.

2010: The enigmatic cycads. Based on new spectacular findings on Piz da Peres he resolved a problem, which occupies the scientist all around the world: In which manner evolved the cycads a plant group of the tropics but dominating the ancient dinosaur forests.

2011: A multiplicity of new plants. Michael Wachtler describes a new kind of conifers, as Alpia anisica and Schizolepis ungeri, which conduct to today's pinaceae and cupressacea. The paleontologist Georg Kandutsch from Carinthia, denominates a new 240 million years old species of ferns, Wachtleria. It is the ancestor of extant Lindsaea growing now in Australia and New Zealand.
The authorities of South Tyrol impose to Michael Wachtler a research ban and confiscate his collection.

2012: The first dinosaurs. In cooperation with the researcher Marco Avanzini from Trentino, Michael Wachtler descripes 240 million years old new found dinosauriformian footprints Sphingopus ladinicus.

 
In the mountains of Trentino, Michael Wachtler in cooperation whith the forest-man Fèro Valentini, discovers a new fossil site with enigmatic fossils. Beneath fossilized plants they discover spherical concretions, which have been found only as Moqui balls in one North American Indian reservation, in which they are venerated as "Shaman stones".