# Lightning And Sauropod Dinosaurs--How did they survive? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [February 15, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694 "2026-02-15T22:01:07Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 11\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/1 "2026-02-15T22:01:07Z")
Sauropods. Giants dinosaurs, with long necks & tails. You’d think they were walking lightning rods. Were they? If so, how did they survive? Have we found the fossilized remains of a Sauropod hat was killed by Lightning? ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 15, 2026, 10:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/2 "2026-02-15T22:06:50Z")
There was a recent thread on this. It is short, but it’s there. > [@How would lightning have affected large sauropods?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-lightning-have-affected-large-sauropods/1024108): > > This question popped up on my Facebook feed from someone, so I thought I’d give the Teeming Millions a chance to speculate. It’s likely that the reason human beings don’t get struck by lightning very often is that we’re not all that tall. Even so, it does happen on occasion. But what might it have done to massive dinosaurs? Is there any indication that they had an evolutionary adaptation that would make them less likely to be electrocuted (I mean the literal definition) by a strike? Did they h… ---
**Author:** ![MrDibble](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mrdibble/32/114_2.png) [@MrDibble](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/MrDibble)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 12:11pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/3 "2026-02-16T12:11:01Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Have we found the fossilized remains of a Sauropod hat was killed by Lightning? Cardiac arrest don’t fossilize so good. I know of absolutely no non-bird dinosaur finds of any clade that have been associated with lightning strikes. ---
**Author:** ![Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/earl_snake-hips_tucker/32/3269_2.png) [@Earl\_Snake-Hips\_Tucker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Earl_Snake-Hips_Tucker)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 12:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/4 "2026-02-16T12:59:48Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > Have we found the fossilized remains of a Sauropod hat was killed by Lightning? [It would most likely be vaporized on contact](https://www.amazon.com/DALIX-Brontosaurus-Apatosaurus-Dinosaur-Baseball/dp/B07XLP6T7Q?th=1&psc=1), leaving behind no trace. ---
**Author:** ![Humbagger](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/db5fbb/32.png) [@Humbagger](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Humbagger)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/5 "2026-02-16T15:30:05Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > You’d think they were walking lightning rods. By the same reasoning single trees in a field are standing lightning rods that should have died out long ago. ---
**Author:** ![Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/marvin_the_martian/32/2898_2.png) [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Marvin_the_Martian)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 4:39pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/6 "2026-02-16T16:39:02Z")
They are likely not the tallest things around. There must be trees taller than them, otherwise there would have been no evolutionary pressure to develop long necks in the first place. Possibly there was some evolutionary advantage to individuals who kept their heads down during a thunderstorm. Paging Ann Elk - maybe she has a theory… ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/7 "2026-02-16T16:51:16Z")
> [@Marvin\_the\_Martian](#): > > There must be trees taller than them, otherwise there would have been no evolutionary pressure to develop long necks in the first place. > **[Why did sauropods have such long necks?](https://svpow.com/2011/05/11/why-did-sauropods-have-such-long-necks/)** > > Why did sauropods have such long necks? It’s the single most obvious and important question about sauropods, so it’s a bit surprising to think that we’ve never really addressed th… ---
**Author:** ![Pleonast](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pleonast/32/1183_2.png) [@Pleonast](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Pleonast)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 4:51pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/8 "2026-02-16T16:51:45Z")
> [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](#): > > If so, how did they survive? Current scientific consensus is that sauropods did not survive. > [@Humbagger](#): > > By the same reasoning single trees in a field are standing lightning rods that should have died out long ago. And sauropods have a major advantage over trees: they can move, both in location and in stance. While I’m sure sauropods were killed by lightning strikes from time to time, their behavior could possibly have mitigated the risk. And sauropods reached maturity faster than trees, which make it even easier to out-reproduce any lightning deaths that did occur. ---
**Author:** ![Dorjan](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dorjan/32/12440_2.png) [@Dorjan](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dorjan)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/9 "2026-02-16T17:01:54Z")
Do giraffes have this issue? Other that trees, they are probably the tallest thing on the savanna. ---
**Author:** ![Darren\_Garrison](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/darren_garrison/32/92_2.png) [@Darren\_Garrison](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Darren_Garrison)\ **Post date:** [February 16, 2026, 5:08pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/10 "2026-02-16T17:08:29Z")
As I posted in the other thread, yes. > [@How would lightning have affected large sauropods?](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-would-lightning-have-affected-large-sauropods/1024108/3): > > So, sometimes. [[Barney on Dogs and Giraffes from The Andy Griffith Show] ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kF-eYA5XifI) ---
**Author:** ![Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bosda_di_chi_of_tricor/32/16845_2.png) [@Bosda\_Di\_Chi\_of\_Tricor](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Bosda_Di_Chi_of_Tricor)\ **Post date:** [February 17, 2026, 2:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/lightning-and-sauropod-dinosaurs-how-did-they-survive/1027694/11 "2026-02-17T14:09:05Z")
They do.