Understanding of the triggers and timing of the rise of complex life ca 2100 to 720 million years ago has expanded dramatically in recent years. This theme issue brings together diverse and novel geochemical and palaeontological data presented as part of the Royal Society ‘The origin and rise of complex life: integrating models, geochemical and palaeontological data’ discussion meeting held in September 2019. The individual papers offer prescient insights from multiple disciplines. Here we summarize their contribution towards the goal of the meeting; to create testable hypotheses for the differing roles of changing climate, oceanic redox, nutrient availability, and ecosystem feedbacks across this profound, but enigmatic, transitional period.

大约在2100年至7.2亿年前，人们对复杂生命增长的触发因素和时机的了解在最近几年有了巨大的发展。本主题会议汇集了各种不同的新颖地球化学和古生物学数据，这些数据作为皇家学会“复杂生命的起源和崛起：模型，地球化学和古生物学数据的整合与融合”的一部分在2019年9月举行的讨论会议上发表。每篇论文都提供了来自以下方面的先见之见：多学科。在这里，我们总结了他们对会议目标的贡献；在这个深刻而又神秘的过渡时期中，为变化的气候，海洋氧化还原，养分有效性和生态系统反馈的不同作用创建可验证的假设。