If you are interested in knowing about a sand dollar, you are at the right place. This article is going to talk about this animal. Do you have any idea about this thing? Does it look like a white star-stamped disk that you get to buy in a souvenir shop?

More on Sand Dollar

Live sand dollar is hairy (flexible bristles known as spines) and purple (sometimes brown or red) looking that live along ocean floor. On the other hand, a dead and dried sand dollar appears to be beached white. It has a hard exoskeleton which is quite smooth with a flower or star-shaped pattern on back of this creature.

Most of the specimen is to have 5 separate openings that are symmetrically seen around body. When they are live, they look quite different as they turn from reddish-brown to the deep purple and are covered in flexible cilia. These creatures have pores on its back and an opening underneath which is their mouth.

The skeleton

The fossil or skeleton of sand dollar has its own significance for various reasons. It is nothing but the hard shell which remains once the living creature dies and then dries out. An intact and complete fossil of sand dollar is very precious and expensive to say the least.

The skeleton of this creature is made up of calcium carbonate. It is there to give its whitish appearance and color. There are star-shaped marking on the surface of sand dollars for which people tend to collect them. Such markings are there to mirror sand dollar’s internal structure.  

Inside of sand dollar

There are reproductive organs and nerve rings seen inside a sand dollar. After this creature dies, such internal organs and parts dry out. And eventually, the only the skeleton remains there. You can decide to explore another aspect of it.