Abstract: Coronavirus is a common and ancient virus family.The coronaviruses have led to outbreaks and epidemic among the population for many times until recent now, including the severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus (SARS-CoV) causing severe acute respiratory syndrome in 2003, human coronavirus NL63 (HCoV-NL63) found in 2004, human coronavirus HPU1 (HCoV-HKU1) found in 2005, coronavirus causing Middle East Respiratory Syndrome (MERS-CoV) in 2012 and novel coronavirus (2019-nCoV) causing COVID-19 in China in Dec,2019.The novel coronavirus has been officially named as 2019-nCoV by the International Committee for the Classification of Viruses.The coronavirus is widely present in bats and is also found in birds, cats, dogs, pigs, mice, horses, whales, pangolins and humans.The epidemics that were caused by the virus have attracted the attention of people from all walks of life, the diseases caused by the virus aroused severe panic.The study of its etiology may facilitate the understanding of the causes for the epidemic and control the spread of the virus.