WELCOME

Welcome at the 22st International Conference on Subterranean Biology web page. The  International Conference on Subterranean Biology (ICSB) is a biennial premier forum for the presentation and discussion of advances in theorical and applied subterranean biology.
Subterranean biology, also referred to as biospeleology or speleobiology, is an integrative field of biology dealing with all aspects of life in subterranean environments like caves, subterranean fissure systems or groundwater.
International Conferences used to be called symposia on subterranean biology are an initiative of the International Society for Subterranean Biology, organized by appointed national members.
The vast geologic diversity of Mexico makes it very interesting for speleological and biospeleological studies. About 20% of the Mexican territory is karst and over 7,000 subterranean environments are registered in Mexico, which include different speleogenesis, and some are among the deepest caves of the world. More than 50 caves in Mexico have been found with depths greater than 500 m, and of the 89 caves with depths greater than 1000 m in the word, nine of them are located in Mexico. Mexico has an ancient tradition in the study of the cave life, Aztec and Maya cultures recognized the importance of bats and other life fauna in their myths and cosmogony.
The first biospeleological studies in Mexico were development by Dominik Bilimek in Cacahuamilpa Grotes, Guerrero State, describing the first cavernicolous animals from Mexico in 1867. There are more than 1,200 subterranean cavities which fauna has been studied, and more than 2,000 species has been recorded in Mexican caves.