| Summary: | On the basis of a recent inventory of the whole Southern Ocean amphipod fauna, the authors briefly review some aspects of the present state of knowledge of the species and taxonomical diversity, of the geographical and bathymetrical distribution and of the eco-functional diversity of the amphipods in the Antarctic benthic communities in particular. They point out some gaps in taxonomic knowledge and the faunal survey of amphipods in the Antarctic and Subantarctic regions. With more than one thousand strictly Antarctic species, the peracarid Crustacea are the most speciose group in the Southern Ocean, and, among them, the amphipods, with 531 Antarctic species and 821 spp. in the whole Southern Ocean, are obviously the most diverse. Some potential causes of this high amphipod diversity are discussed.
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