The development of dopamine-immunoreactive (DAir) populations in the central nervous system of the sea lamprey, a modern representative of the earliest vertebrates, was studied to achieve further understanding of dopaminergic systems in vertebrates. The first DAir cell groups appeared in the spinal cord, the posterior tubercle nucleus and the dorsal hypothalamic nucleus of prolarval stages. In larvae, new DAir cell groups were observed in the caudal preoptic nucleus, the postoptic commissure nucleus, the postinfundibular commissure nucleus and the caudal rhombencephalon. All these DAir cell groups observed in larvae were also DA-positive in adults, which showed only one new DAir cell group found in the ventral hypothalamic nucleus. Occasional DAir cells were observed in the telencephalon, the ventral thalamus and/or the isthmus of large larvae and adults. From medium-sized larvae to adults, the regions most richly innervated by DAir fibers were the neurohypophysis, the striatum, the pretectum and the midbrain tegmentum. Striking differences are observed between lampreys and other vertebrates in regard to the relative time of appearance of DAir cells, which is probably related with the complex life cycle of the sea lamprey.