The Page-Ladson site was discovered accidentally in the early 1980s when former Navy SEAL Buddy Page found prehistoric elephant bones while scuba diving in the Aucilla River.
Notes on verification
Confirmed by multiple independent sources including Wikipedia, a peer-reviewed academic publication, and journalistic coverage, all consistent on the details of Buddy Page's discovery and the 1983 timeframe. [cascade flags: wikipedia_dropped_other_sources_exist | tier=unverified indep_score=0.3 clusters=2 claim_tier=notable] [rescored 2026-09-15: curated origin-host map (PR #65); unclassified hosts no longer scored as aggregators]
Sources
- Discovery Points to Earlier Arrival of First Americans (seed:history_and_archaeology)
- https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260135500_First_Floridians_and_Last_Mastodons_The_Page-Ladson_Site_in_the_Aucilla_River (corroboration)
- https://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2016/0513/Underwater-archaeological-site-recasts-peopling-of-the-Americas-narrative (corroboration)