 The fossil record for bees is very incomplete, but by 2012 some 11 specimens that might possibly be Bombini, some poorly documented, had been described; some (such as Calyptapis florissantensis from Florissant, USA, and Oligoapis beskonakensis from Beskonak, Turkey) dated from the Oligocene. In 2012 a fossil bumblebee, Bombus (Bombus) randeckensis was found in the Miocene rocks of the Randeck Maar in southwestern Germany and confidently placed in the subgenus Bombus. In 2014, a new bumblebee, Bombus cerdanyensis, was described from Late Miocene lacustrine beds of La Cerdanya, Spain, while another, Oligobombus cuspidatus was described from the late Eocene Bembridge Marls of the Isle of Wight.
