Shear, W.A., Bonamo, P.M., Grierson, J.D., Rolfe, W.D.I., Smith, E.L., &
Norton, R.A. 1984. Early land animals in North America: Evidence from
Devonian age arthropods from Gilboa, New York. Science 224, 492-494.
You might also be interested in:
Whalley, P. & Jarzembowski, E.A. 1981. A new assessment of Rhyniella, the
earliest known insect, from the Devonian of Rhynie, Scotland. Nature 291, 317.
I'm not current with the latest discoveries since then so can't comment much
more than to say that it's always been thought that the evolutionary development
of the insects (and other land-dwelling arthropoda) was closely tied to the
evolutionary development of land plants (a whole new ecosystem to exploit!).
These fossils are not contaminants and not even particularly surprising since
paleontologists expected insects to have developed in the Devonian even before
they found the Devonian-age fossils (read some of the older paleo textbooks).
- Steve.
-- Steven H. Schimmrich, Assistant Professor of Geology Department of Geology, Geography, and Environmental Studies Calvin College, 3201 Burton Street SE, Grand Rapids, Michigan 49546 sschimmr@calvin.edu (office), schimmri@earthlink.net (home) 616-957-7053 (voice mail), 616-957-6501 (fax) http://home.earthlink.net/~schimmrich/