Members of this genus are in the subfamily Dolichoderinae of the family Formicidae, known from Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene fossils found in Europe.

These ants are small, measuring from 4 to 6 mm (0.16 to 0.24 in) in length and can be characterized by their trapezoidal shaped head-capsules and oval compound eyes that are located slightly to the rear of the capsules midpoint, with no known ocelli present.

Individuals of Yantaromyrmex species have been found as inclusions in four different Middle Eocene to Early Oligocene amber deposits in Europe.

[1] Baltic amber is approximately 46 million years old, having been deposited during the Lutetian stage of the Middle Eocene.

[2] Rovno amber, recovered from deposits in the Rivne region of Ukraine, is slightly younger in age, being dated to the Bartonian to Priabonian of the Late Eocene.

Bitterfeld represents a section of the Eocene Paratethys Sea, and the amber that is recovered from the region is thought to be redeposited from older sediments.

These fossils were first studied by American entomologist William Morton Wheeler, whose type description of "Iridomyrmex" samlandica was published in the journal Schriften der Physikalisch-Ökonomischen Gesellschaft zu Königsberg.

samlandica would be better placed in the genus Iridomyrmex and noted Y. geinitzi to be one of the most abundant ant species in the Baltic amber he had studied.

[8] At that time Shattuck provisionally kept Y. geinitzi in Iridomyrmex citing a lack of specimens for him to study, while both Y. constrictus and Y. samlandicus were transferred to the genus Anonychomyrma.

Based on the differences they noted, Dlussky and Dubovikoff erected the new genus Yantaromyrmex in 2013 for these ants and described two new species, Y. intermedius and Y. mayrinaum.

[1] The genus is characterized by workers which have head-capsules that are trapezoidal in shape, narrowing at the front and widening towards the rear of the capsule.

The oval compound eyes are generally placed slightly to the rear of the capsules midpoint, and lacking ocelli completely.

[1] The right antenna of the type specimen is preserved with the head of a Ctenobethylus goepperti worker ant clamped near the tip, and it seems the two had just fought prior to entombment.

In contrast Y. geinitzi workers have smooth eye margins and legs, and a sparse scattering of hairs on the mesosoma, last segments of the abdomen and along the upper side of the head.