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”
“Die Entstehung der Dolomiten“, “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.
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2015: 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 all pines and honours 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.

2012: Nilssonia perneri e altre scoperte
In the mountains of Trentino, Michael Wachtler in cooperation with 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".

2011: Wachtleria and a multiplicity of new plants
Michael Wachtler describes different kind of conifers, as Alpia anisica and Perneria 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.

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 twenty 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.
2007: The "Tirol-Saga"
Further publications about the mendacity and superficiality of today’s society, the madness about money and the senseless lifestyle follow, like a bad book about the good country..

2006: The 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: Critics of today’s society
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.



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.

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.
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.

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: Important discoveries Bjuvia dolomitica
Michael Wachtler recovers primitive fossilised cycads. These residuals document how this interesting genus has come into being. The cycadees or fern palms belong to one of the oldest 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.

1990: Important discoveries: Voltzia dolomitica and Alpia 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 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.

Expeditions:
1981: India and Nepal
1983: Namibia
1985: 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”.