[1] Cave bear of the species (Ursus ingressus)[2] and other bone fossils that people found during the Middle Ages were deemed to be the bones of dragons, a belief that culminated in the saga of the "Dragon slayer of Mixnitz".

[2] Due to a shortage of fertilizers during and after World War I the 8 to 10 m (26 to 33 ft) high sediments inside the cave were intensively mined between 1918 and 1923 of which around 2,500 tons of phosphoric acid were extracted.

[2][4] During the fertilizer mining, several geologists and paleontologists were present, who only documented the most valuable discoveries.

Nonetheless, a rich cache of cave bear, Eurasian cave lion (Panthera leo spelaea), Gray wolf (Canis lupus), Alpine ibex (Capra ibex) and Alpine marmot (Marmota marmota) fossils, remains of open hearths and Paleolithic stone tools of the Aurignacian culture dated to 65,000 to 31,000 BCE were unearthed.

[4] Records of archaeological work were published in a monograph in 1931, that was re-edited by Othenio Abel and G. Kyrie.