A team of French researchers headed by André Nel and G. Perrault published the 2004 type description of the new genus and species in the journal Geologica Acta. The genus name Gerontoformica was coined as a combination of the Greek word Geronto from the old age of the ant and Formica, a genus of ants. The genus had a single species the Charentese amber G. cretacica.
