Recent explorations of marine caves in several of the world's oceans have revealed a diversity of new species, genera, and higher categories of invertebrates. Dr. Iliffe proposes to continue his collecting efforts in the Indo-Pacific, with partial support provided by the National Geographic Society. Dr. Iliffe will make collections and document the cave habitats, and then distribute the organisms to collaborating specialists who will describe them and study their evolutionary relationships. The evolutionary histories of the cave-dwellers will in part reflect the history of ocean bottom on which they occur. Continental drift and sea-floor spreading will affect, if not dictate the past and present distributions of cave faunas. The wider implications of the research involve not only a clearer picture of one of the world's remainig unexplored biotas, but the unravelling of how earth history impacts on evolution.
