Animals—including humans, dinosaurs, and trilobites—appeared only about 85 percent of the way through Earth's history.
Notes on verification
Multiple peer-reviewed and institutional sources (Biological Bulletin, NASA, Paleontological Society, Andrew Knoll's own research) converge on the same order of magnitude, confirming animals emerged only in the last ~15% of Earth's history. [tier=gold indep_score=0.988 clusters=4 claim_tier=notable]
Sources
- Interesting facts about Earth from Harvard paleontologist (seed:psychology_and_neuroscience)
- https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/full/10.1086/721754 (corroboration)
- https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/19850024398 (corroboration)
- https://www.paleosoc.org/assets/docs/Oldest_Fossil.pdf (corroboration)
- https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4484972 (corroboration)