Are cycads really dinosaur plants?

Cycads are hardy survivors of multiple extinction events, such that they are often described as ‘dinosaur plants’.

But is that true? Or are they, like the rest of us, the product of millions of years of change?

Dr James Clugston is a cycad expert from the Royal Botanic Garden of Sydney who has been in the Australian outback recording rare species.

Cosmos spoke to him about the work he and other botanists are undertaking to preserve and protect cycads from future extinction.