The mammoths and horses depicted in this photo may have been present, or have recently become extinct. None of their bones have been found at Broken Mammoth or other late Ice Age sites. But the surviving tusks were useful as tools, and the legends of the mammoth must surely have remained.

The bones of the animals at the Broken Mammoth site were preserved because of unusual soil conditions in the unglaciated central Tanana Valley. The large deposits of glacial silt that buried the site contain limestone. This in turn neutralized the acids produced by the spruce trees that later grew on the site.

This site depicts some of the animals whose remains are most commonly found at the Broken Mammoth site - bison, elk (wapiti), caribou, mountain sheep, snowshoe hares, Arctic foxes, wolves whistling swans, Canada geese, as well as the mammoth and horse that may have been present.