Neural crest cells migrate extensively during embryonic development and give rise to numerous and varied derivatives. Two important and unresolved questions are: what controls the migration and differentiation of these cells? This review summarizes recent experiments that address these issues. Specifically, this overview describes the pathways of neural crest cell migration, the functional importance of interactions between neural crest cells and the extracellular matrix for their movement, and studies on neural crest cell lineage in vivo by labelling individual precursor cells.