Writing in the Quarterly Review of Biology, Philip Gingerich described Marine Mammals: Evolutionary Biology as an "excellent introduction to the whole spectrum of marine mammal evolution, anatomy, behavior, ecology, and life history" and as "well-organized and very readable." "Our motivation for writing this book was the lack of a comprehensive text on marine mammal biology, particularly one that employs a comparative, phylogenetic approach," the authors explain. "We have attempted, where possible, to demonstrate that hypotheses of the evolutionary relationships of marine mammals provide a powerful approach for tracing the evolution of their morphology, behavior, and ecology."