ABSTRACT
One of my aims is to take a retrospective and prospective view that will help colleagues identify areas of cavefi sh research that need increased attention. In this context I urge everyone to think about how to solve ‘mysteries’ in their research area and to explain any new insights (eurekas) they have had. My second aim is to urge everyone to place their studies in the context of ecological and evolutionary concepts so that others will use cavefi sh as examples. In this chapter I identify what I consider to be exemplary examples from both my own work and that of others. I pay attention to how new techniques are giving better answers to old questions. And I consider what questions can and cannot be answered with different study systems, especially Astyanax species vs the Amblyopsidae. I urge you to do the same in your chapters and future work. In all cases try to update what you have published in readily accessible books. And of course build on past work of others especially in The Biology of Hypogean Fishes (Romero 2001) and Subterranean Fishes of the World (Proudlove 2006) but also build on a number of fi ne chapters in Encyclopedia of Caves (Culver and White 2005), Subterranean Ecosystems (Wilkens, Culver, and Humphreys 2000), and the Special Issue of The National Speleological Society Bulletin on Regressive Evolution (Culver 1985).
