Mutations lowering the kinase activity of Drosophila Doubletime (DBT) and vertebrate casein kinase Ie/d (CKIe/d) produce long-period, short-period, and arrhythmic circadian rhythms. Since most ckI shortperiod mutants have been isolated in mammals, while the long-period mutants have been found mostly in Drosophila, lowered kinase activity may have opposite consequences in flies and vertebrates, because of differences between the kinases or their circadian mechanisms. However, the results of this article establish that the Drosophila dbt mutations have similar effects on period (PER) protein phosphorylation by the fly and vertebrate enzymes in vitro and that Drosophila DBT has an inhibitory C-terminal domain and exhibits autophosphorylation, as does vertebrate CKIe/d. Moreover, expression of either Drosophila DBT or the vertebrate CKId kinase carrying the Drosophila dbt S or vertebrate tau mutations in all circadian cells leads to short-period circadian rhythms. By contrast, vertebrate CKId carrying the dbt L mutation does not lengthen circadian rhythms, while Drosophila DBT L does. Different effects of the dbt S and tau mutations on the oscillations of PER phosphorylation suggest that the mutations shorten the circadian period differently. The results demonstrate a high degree of evolutionary conservation of fly and vertebrate CKId and of the functions affected by their period-shortening mutations.