I thought it was more like 400 million years between water and the first life -- and that is the oldest life we have evidence of. It could conceivably take a c

I thought it was more like 400 million years between water and the first life -- and that is the oldest life we have evidence of. It could conceivably take a couple hundred million years for life to go from the initial spark, to having evolved enough (and have a sufficient population) to leave detectable fossils.