Michael Wachtler – Biography & Vita

2024: Wachtler took part of an expedition to Kyrgyzstan.Together with the local university he made researches in the steppe desert of Madygen about the rich Triassic insect and plant world there.

2023: A standard work on the beginning of the plant world appears under the title “The Middle Devonian Flora Explosion”.

2022: A first work on the famous “Carnic Catastrophe” appears. The basis is his research in the Lienz Dolomites. Around 232 million years ago, the entire plant world collapsed within a short period of time.

2021: Michael Wachtler describes many new fossil plants from the Dolomites and even the skeleton of a frog ancestor. In honor of the finder, he named the amphibium Dolomitiphibium nicolaswachtleri. He named also a 260 million-year-old ginkgo plant after the English researcher Charlotte Murchison Ginkgoites murchisonae.

2020: “The Origin and Evolution of Angiosperms” is published. The book shows that the first flowering plants were already developed 290 million years ago on the Angara-continent now forming part of Siberia.

2019: “The Genesis of the Dolomites”. A comprehensive standard work about the origin of the Dolomites is edited.

2018: Megachirella wachtleri, the ancestor of snakes and lizards as cover image of the journal “Nature”, the most important scientific magazine in the world.

2017: Heart of gold. A publication about the big gold findings near the Monte Rosa with 30 kg gold is edited.

2016: Discoveries in Germany Michael Wachtler describes the important Triassic Flora from Ilsfeld with its richness in horsetails and cycads.

2015: The first pine-trees. Ferruccio Valentini discovers in the Dolomite-Mountains enigmatic branchlets of conifers. Michael Wachtler recognizes that they are the progenitor of the pines and honors the finder with the name Férovalentinia.

2015: The birth of flowering plants. In the Russian Ural mountains Michael Wachtler discovers the first angiosperms, that originated in the Permian. He describes the symbiosis between flowering plants and insects.

2014: The ancestor of all conifers. The German researcher Thomas Perner and Michael Wachtler discover and describe the progenitor of all conifers: Perneria thomsonii.

2013: Féro the man of wilderness. Wachtler prosecutes with his social critics. Through to his fighting for the conservation of nature he had to sustain long judicial battles. Nevertheless he edited a new book against destroying of the Dolomites. International scientists named a horsetail plant, Calamites wachtleri, and the ancient conifer Wachtlerina in his honor.

2012: Forest man Féro Valentini and his discoveries. In the Trentino mountains, Michael Wachtler, together with the forest man Féro Valentini, discovered a new site of strange fossils. In addition to fossilized plants, there are also strange spherical concretions, which have so far only been found in an Indian reservation in North America, where they are venerated as mythical “shaman stones.” To express their connection to both, the German researcher Thomas Perner named a plant after them: Wachtleropteris valentinii.

2010: The enigmatic cycads. Based on new spectacular findings on Piz da Peres and Tregiovo he gibe substantial contribute to an enigmatic problem that occupies scientists all around the world: In which manner evolved the cycads a plant group of the tropics dominating the ancient dinosaur forests.

2009: Journey to the forgotten land of gold and diamonds. He makes expeditions in the jungles of Venezuela to live with the gold diggers there. He climb also several Tepuis, the famous table mountains of the Amazon.

2008: 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 30 kilos of pure gold.

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

2007: Sphingopus ladinicus, the first 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. In cooperation with the researcher Marco Avanzini from Trentino, Michael Wachtler he describes these dinosauriformian footprints as Sphingopus ladinicus.

2006: Great crystal caves. During a tour with the brothers Tomaschett from the Surselva in Swiss he discovers an enourmous crystal cave that turned this finding into one of the best in the Alps.

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

2005: The primitive fern Gordonopteris lorigae. This plant owes its name to two lady scientists who made a precious contribution to research in the Dolomites, Carmela Loriga-Broglio and the Scotswoman Maria Ogilvie-Gordon. 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.

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.

2003: Masterpieces of Nature’s Art
He realised „Masterpieces of Nature´s Art“. These are big slabs full of petrifactions which 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.
Reappraisal of the First World War in the mountains. Successful books and films are published, becoming standard works.

2002: Treasuries of nature . Together with the Carinthian Georg Kandutsch Michael Wachtler builds his first “treasuries of nature”. These are Museum-like structures that exhibit the best attractions of nature.

 2002: Expeditions to the South-Seas to Vanuatu and its primitive people and volcanoes, to Kamchatka, the untouched Russian peninsula.

2000: A new coelacanth. He discovers fossilised fishes. One of them a primitive coelacanth, known as a ‘living fossil“ is a rare ancestor of today’s genus Latimeria.

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

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.

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).

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), Monaco 2008 (Gold of the Alps), „Indian Treasures“ (2009), „European dinosaurs“ (2011).
Articles for magazines as National Geographic, Trekking, Alpin.

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.

1995: Michael Wachtler discovers surprisingly well-preserved fossilized remains of ancient cycads in the Dolomites. This genus belongs to one of the strangest plant families. They emerged from nowhere, dominated the plant world during the time of the dinosaurs, and are now increasingly being pushed back.

1994: Son Nicolas is born. Daughters Alexa and Gaia came in the following years.

1990: First fossil plant finds. Michael Wachtler discovers new primitive conifer species, which represent an important step in the evolution of this vital plant group. They represent a crucial transition from primitive conifers to today’s modern ones, which ultimately lead to the Araucarias and all other conifer species. He describes them together with the Dutch professor Han van Konijnenburg-van Cittert.

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

1980 – 1990 Founder of several newspapers

1984: The tragically death of his mentor
His teacher, Nolli Huber, is killed during a crystal searching-tour in the mountains together with Michael Wachtler

1970-1990 Crystal searcher and discoverer
He lives as crystal searcher in the Alps and discovers under extreme circumstances biggest crystals and rare minerals.

1981: Expeditions to India and Nepal
1983: Expedition Namibia
1985: Expedition Galapagos – Peru

Michael Wachtler is 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”.