The superfamily Palpimanoidea is an old lineage of spiders, it contains five extant families, five fossil families and several fossil species which cannot be classified into any families. The oldest known palpimanoid fossil was reported dating back to the Early Jurassic, thought molecular phylogenetic studies suggested that it may originate from Permian. Palpimanoid fossil spiders had a relatively high diversity in the Mesozoic, representing an important part of spider fossils. However, extant palpimanoids are quite rare, and mainly restricted in tropical and subtropical regions. Recent phylogenetic analyses considered Palpimanoidea as a possible sister- group of Entelegynae, thus, palpimanoids are an important group for understanding spider evolution. In this paper, the research history of Palpimanoidea systematics is briefly reviewed, the geological history of palpimanoid fossils is summarized, and a list of palpimanoid fossils is provided. At present, some problems on the research of palpimanoid fossils are as follows: the foundation of taxonomical study is weak; phylogenetic placements of some fossil groups are considered as controversial; the relationships among fossil and extant taxa in the Palpimanoidea are ambiguous. In the future studies, getting more detailed morphological data by using multiple technologies is needed to lay a better foundation of taxonomical study on Palpimanoidea; phylogenetic analysis including both fossil and extant taxa is needed; and then, exploring the natural evolutionary history of palpimanoid spiders by combining the researches of paleogeography, paleoecology and biological behaviors is needed.