The other Sequoioideae and several other genera have been transferred from the Taxodiaceae to the Cupressaceae based on DNA analysis. Although it is the only living species in its genus, three fossil species are known as well. Together with Sequoia sempervirens (Coast Redwood) and Sequoiadendron giganteum (Giant Sequoia) of California, M. glyptostroboides is classified in the subfamily Sequoioideae of the family Cupressaceae. Hunnewell estate in Wellesley, MA, where they are still alive as of 2016. In 1948 the Arnold Arboretum of Harvard University funded an expedition to collect seeds from Kan's original tree and, soon after, distributed seeds and seedlings to various universities and arboreta worldwide for growth trials. Professors Wan Chun Cheng and Hu Xiansu made the pivotal connection and provided the specific epithet " glyptostroboides," after its resemblance to the Chinese swamp cypress ( Glyptostrobus). It wasn’t until 1946 that anyone connected Miki's genus and the living samples. The samples were determined to belong to a tree yet unknown to science, but World War II postponed further study. In 1943, Zhan Wang (1911–2000), a Chinese forestry official, collected samples from an unidentified tree in Modaoxi, China (presently, Moudao, Lichuan County, Hubei)-now believed to be the same tree Kan discovered. It formed part of a local shrine, where villagers called it Shui-shan 水杉 or "water fir". Though unaware of Miki’s new genus, he recognized the unique traits of the tree. Kan came across an enormous living specimen while performing a survey in Sichuan and Hubei provinces. Shigeru Miki (1901–1974), a paleobotanist from Kyoto University, identified a divergent leaf form while studying fossil samples of the family Cupressaceae and realized he was looking at a new genus, which he named Metasequoia, meaning "like a sequoia." The genus Metasequoia was first described in 1941 as a fossil of the Mesozoic Era, and none of the fossils discovered were less than 1.5 million years old. Though once common across the northern hemisphere, the Dawn Redwood was originally considered extinct.
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