What is sand dollars? Would you be rich if you owned a lot of dollars of sand?

Sand dollars, at first heard the same name as the method of trade from ancient times but in reality it is the name of a marine species with many interesting facts.

What is sand dollars?

Sand dollar is a term for creatures of the same species as sea urchins , with a round shape resembling a coin. When talking about sea urchins, people often think of scary creatures, thorny, living on the sea floor but few know sea urchins come in many shapes and sizes.

Dollar sand when dry hard.

Sand dunes are a subspecies of sea urchins whose scientific name is Clypeasteroida . The creature is round, extremely flat, closely related to sea cucumbers and starfish. Their extraordinary appearance helps whenever it washed ashore to fascinate people for centuries.

In addition to the attractive name, Sand Dollars can also be called sand biscuits . The sandy dollar name is easy to remember from centuries ago, when the first explorers found unusual "rocks" on the beach. They are round, like a coin. There are even people who think that it is a currency that aquatic creatures use, one of them may be mermaids living in the city of Atlantis.

Colorful sand dollars live in groups of hundreds under the sea.

Dollars of sand have a hard outer shell, covering many layers of fine hairs. This intricate structure makes it easy for Sand Dollars to easily navigate the undersea environment for food.

Sand dunes tend to burrow directly below or in sandy and muddy areas. To know the exact life span of the sand dollar, you can look at the rings at the bottom of the bark, similar to the way the tree is measured. On average, the life expectancy of sand dollars is 7-10 years.

The pattern on the sand dollar shells forms a symmetrical 5-petal flower. This is the position of the pores on the shell, allowing the gas exchange needed for life.

However, when sand dollars die, they cannot hold themselves in that position and are easily swept ashore by the tide.

Sunlight will bleach the crust of the Sand Dollar until it is almost white.
When the shell is dry it resembles a starfish on top of a pure white rock. Beautiful appearance, sand dollar shell will be an interesting gift for your loved ones whenever you go to the beach.

Interesting facts about Sand Dollars

Sand dunes are famous for being slow eaters.

Although you can find quite similar sand dunes on the coast, there are actually dozens of different types of sand dunes around the world. Still, they have most in common.

Because the body is too light, sand dollars often struggle to cling against strong currents. Because they are too light, they often try to cling together to form a sand dollar group with hundreds of children and the whole group will move to search for fertile land with food.

Sand dunes are famous for being slow eaters. They usually take more than 2 days to completely consume the food.

Sand dollars are capable of sex like most creatures. Sand Dollars drop eggs and sperm into the water in the same area and let fertilization happen randomly.