This paper is derived from the keynote address given at a workshop entitled “Technical and Theoretical Approaches to Antarctic Fish Evolution”. The workshop was held in Santa Margherita Ligure, Italy from October 8-10, 1994 and was sponsored by a European Science Foundation Network Proposal entitled “Fishes of Antarctic Ocean”. The paper introduces the theme of the workshop and focuses on these aspects of notothenioid evolution: 1) the Cenozoic fossil record for fishes in Antarctica with a hypothesis for the emergence of notothenioids; 2) the composition of the modern fauna; 3) a comparison of the diversifications experienced by notothenioids and other teleosts and 4) the nature of adaptations to the Antarctic marine environment. The following are recommended objectives for future multidisciplinary research on notothenioids: 1) production of cladograms resolved to the level of genus and species; 2) comparison of cladograms produced from different data sets and combination of different types of characters into a single large data set; 3) expansion of the taxonomical base and suites of characters available for cladistic analysis; 4) evaluation of the roles of phylogeny and environmental adaptation in the diversification of notothenioids; 5) employment of divergence times inferred from molecular data to evaluate palaeoenvironmental changes as vicariant events influencing notothenioid diversification; 6) maintenance of research focused on both microevolutionary and macroevolutionary levels and 7) incorporation of marine biodiversity issues into notothenioid research.