DNA-dependent DNA polymerases have now been purified from a number of invertebrate animals, protists, higher plants and fungi. In this article we review the properties of these enzymes and compare them with the better-known enzymes of vertebrate animals and prokaryotes. Three facts emerge. Firstly, plants, protists and fungi contain high-molecular-weight DNA polymerases which may be capable of categorization into two groups on the basis of their properties in vitro. Secondly, no enzyme analogous to the vertebrate polymerase-beta has yet been found in such organisms, and thirdly, many of these enzymes possess associated exonuclease activities like those of the bacterial DNA polymerases. On the basis of these findings, some tentative proposals are made about the evolution of DNA polymerases.