


This was all badly reported in the news.  There is no evidence that
signs of life found in old rock predate putative planet-sterilizing
events.  Rather, the argument was that if life arose shortly the last
sterilizing event, then it must be easily formed.  The *inference*
was that life originated before and was destroyed, but there was
no evidence of that.

However, even this argument is flawed.  It could well be that origin of
life requires specific conditions (say, a certain composition of the
atmosphere) that do not last for long.  So, perhaps life formed
early only because it would have had no other chance to do so,
not because it was likely that life would originate under those
conditions.