When an asteroid slammed into Earth 65 million years ago, the resulting giant tsunamis, earthquakes, and catastrophic global warming wiped out the planet’s dominant species—dinosaurs. There were probably more than 10,000 different species, many of them still unknown to us, says Kenneth Lacovara in his new book, Why Dinosaurs Matter.

As a paleontologist and director of the Edelman Fossil Park at Rowan University in New Jersey, Lacovara hates it when people use the word “dinosaur” to describe something as out of date. When he spoke to National Geographic, he explained why he also objects to jokes about T. rex’s puny arms and why dinosaurs can help us navigate our uncertain path into the future.

I do! [Laughs] Dinosaurs