That feels incredibly unlikely. The universe is billions of years old. There was nothing preventing an intelligence from developing on Earth a billion years ear

That feels incredibly unlikely. The universe is billions of years old. There was nothing preventing an intelligence from developing on Earth a billion years earlier. That being said, our civilization got an enormous boon coming later in the history of the planet. Fossil fuels and the abundant energy economy would not be available without the right biologic circumstances (eg lignin metabolism developing late) and timing.