Herpesviruses are a group of large DNA viruses with a characteristic virion. The Herpesviridae family includes viruses that infect mammals, reptiles and birds, and is divided into 3 subfamilies. Within this family it is known more than 100 viruses, of which 8 of them infects humans. Human herpesviruses are very well researched and the genomes of 6 species have been sequenced. All human herpesviruses are widespread in human population as a result of their ability to establish latent infections and because they have many genes interacting with the host. Herpesviruses, as an ancient slowly evolving DNA viruses, coevolved closely associated with their hosts – vertebrates and early hominids, but their selective pressure became significant only when they began to migrate within the respective population. Since it was discovered that within all 3 subfamilies there are 40 conserved genes, the phylogenetic tree based on the sequence of 6 of those genes was constructed. The tree revealed that within each subfamily structure of phylogenetic tree was congruent with that of the host organism (mammals), which confirms that coevolution occured. Because the data from the paleontology of vertebrates can be translated to the herpesviral phylogenetic tree, the timeline of their evolution was obtained.