Dinosaurs were once the "hegemons"on the earth, but they have been extinct for a long time. There is a contemporaneous species with dinosaurs which is still alive on the earth today. It is the "giant of the fern kingdom" —Cyathea spinulosa.

At the end of the Cretaceous period, due to volcanic activity and meteorite impact, the earth fell into chaos, and most species including dinosaurs perished. In this mass extinction, many ferns such as Cyathea spinulosa also "withdrew from the home field" together with dinosaurs.

However, there are also some lucky Cyathea spinulosa plants that found a small refuge in this cataclysm.They hid in the valley, survived for billions of years, and were finally discovered by human beings. Such is the case of the Cyathea spinulosa in Gao County, Yibin City, Sichuan Province.

As a living fossil in the plant world, Cyathea spinulosa is important for the study of species formation and floristic geography,as well as the study of paleontology, paleoclimate and paleoenvironmental changes.