Reviewing The Tree of Life for RNCSE, Kevin Padian wrote, "The Tree of Life is a terrific compendium of the conclusions of thirty years of research and standardization by thousands of scientists around the globe. It is clearly written, logically organized, and beautifully illustrated. In short, it is one-stop shopping for anyone with questions about where a given group of organisms fits on the tree of life, what characteristics put it there, and how we know all this. ... This book deserves wide distribution and use in libraries and classrooms, as well as among professionals and students of biology."