The earliest fossil evidence for life on Earth, microbial mats, dates back about:

1. The age of the planet and the age of life on it are two different numbers. 2. The Earth is approximately 4.6 billion years old. 3. The earliest fossil evidence for life are microbial mats that date back to 3.5 billion years. 4. So 4.6 billion is the trap: that is the planet's age, not life's. 5. The gap between the two figures is roughly a billion years. _Source: OpenStax Biology for AP(R) Courses (CC BY 4.0), Ch 4 'Cell Structure', sections 4.1-4.6_