The remains of Archaeotrogon have been found in the Quercy Phosphorites of France, a geological formation containing Late Eocene and Early Oligocene deposits.

[1] The Middle Eocene Hassiavis, a more recently described bird from the famous Messel Pit in Germany, is also a member of the family.

In 2021, a new genus, Archaeodromus was described from fossils found in the Early Eocene (Ypresian) aged London Clay, which are the oldest representatives of the family.

[2] However, it is nowadays generally believed that they are not very closely related to these tropical forest birds of our time, but rather convergent.

The latter might be more justified than with other indeterminate Cretaceous and Paleogene modern birds: they are known from a time when the living cypselomorph families were already distinct, yet appears as well highly autapomorphic and the archaeotrogonid lineage seems to go as far back as that of nightjars for example.