title: Earth before life.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  A recent study argued, based on data on functional genome size of major phyla, that there is evidence life may have originated significantly prior to the formation of the Earth.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Here a more refined regression analysis is performed in which 1) measurement error is systematically taken into account, and 2) interval estimates (e.g., confidence or prediction intervals) are produced. It is shown that such models for which the interval estimate for the time origin of the genome includes the age of the Earth are consistent with observed data.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The appearance of life after the formation of the Earth is consistent with the data set under examination.
authors.affiliation: Applied Physics Laboratory, Univ, of Washington, Seattle, WA, 98105-6698, USA. marzban@stat.washington.edu.
authors.forename: Caren
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Marzban
authors.forename: Raju
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Viswanathan
authors.forename: Ulvi
authors.initials: U
authors.lastname: Yurtsever
mesh_terms: D018534:Earth, Planet; D019143:Evolution, Molecular; D016678:Genome; D008957:Models, Genetic; D012044:Regression Analysis