In brief, our study outlines possible prebiotic pathways that could have led to many complex phospholipids and their building blocks on early Earth. By enhancing the prebiotic plausibility of previously reported syntheses, we challenge the hypothesis that such phospholipids appeared at a later stage in the molecular evolutionary timeline (i.e., after the emergence of ribozymes). We instead suggest that they were prebiotically available early on and played a key role in the emergence of primitive cells able to support fusion, fission, and replication through cycles of growth and division.