from the article : >just 340 million years after the formation of the plant Also when you consider that the earth was uninhabitable for most of those first fe

from the article : >just 340 million years after the formation of the plant Also when you consider that the earth was uninhabitable for most of those first few hundred million years. This was a time when our planet was still getting bombarded by asteroids and oceans would have boiled away into steam. Temperatures were hot and the surface was volcanic. It was barely habitable at this point. That would would qualify as shortly by most estimates. Life began as soon as it was possible.