It is my hope that this collection of reviews can be profitably read by all who are interested in evolutionary biology. However, I would like to specifically target it for two disparate groups of biologists seldom men­ tioned in the same sentence, classical ichthyologists and molecular biologists. Since classical times, and perhaps even before, ichthyologists have stood in awe at the tremendous diversity of fishes. The bulk of effort in the field has always been directed toward understanding this diversity, i. e. , extracting from it a coherent picture of evolutionary processes and lineages. This effort has, in turn, always been overwhelmingly based upon morphological comparisons. The practical advantages of such compari­ sons, especially the ease with which morphological data can be had from preserved museum specimens, are manifold. But considered objectively (outside its context of "tradition"), morphological analysis alone is a poor tool for probing evolutionary processes or elucidating relationships. The concepts of "relationship" and of "evolution" are inherently genetic ones, and the genetic bases of morphological traits are seldom known in detail and frequently unknown entirely. Earlier in this century, several workers, notably Gordon, Kosswig, Schmidt, and, in his salad years, Carl Hubbs, pioneered the application of genetic techniques and modes of reasoning to ichthyology. While certain that most contemporary ichth­ yologists are familiar with this body of work, I am almost equally certain that few of them regard it as pertinent to their own efforts.  

Table of contents :
Tetraploidy and the Evolution of Salmonid Fishes....Pages 1-53 Tetraploidy and the Evolution of the Catostomid Fishes....Pages 55-93 A New Look at Sex Determination in Poeciliid Fishes....Pages 95-171 Gene Mapping in Fishes and Other Vertebrates....Pages 173-234 The Evolutionary Genetics of Xiphophorus....Pages 235-310 Apomictic Reproduction in the Amazon Molly, Poecilia formosa, and Its Triploid Hybrids....Pages 311-328 Evolutionary Ecology of Unisexual Fishes....Pages 329-398 The Evolution of Clonal Diversity in Poeciliopsis....Pages 399-429 Evolutionary Phenetics and Genetics....Pages 431-528 Population Genetics of North Atlantic Catadromous Eels (Anguilla)....Pages 529-560 Allozymes of the Cyprinid Fishes....Pages 561-590 Descriptive Genetics of Cichlid Fishes....Pages 591-616