sea urchin on a sponge
Sand dollars
A sand dollar isn’t something you can spend. It’s a small animal that
looks somewhat like a silver dollar or a cookie. Sand dollars are also
called sea biscuits or cake urchins.Sand dollars live close to shore. They spend most of their time buried
just beneath the top of the sand. They get food—tiny bits of dead
animals and plants—among the grains of sand. It’s also where they’re
safest from enemies, such as certain snails and starfish.A sand dollar is very much like its cousin the sea urchin. The sand
dollar’s soft body is covered by a tough shell. And the shell is
covered by tiny, hairlike spikes called spines. Among the spines there
are many tubelike feet and claws like little pincers.To eat, which it does almost all of the time, a sand dollar waves the
tiny hairs that are on all its spines. This pulls bits of food into
the spines. A sticky, syrupy liquid runs from the spines to grooves on
the sand dollar’s body. These grooves run to the animal’s mouth. So,
the bits of food are carried along like objects floating on a river.Sand dollars are small creatures, usually no more than three or four
inches (7.5 to 10 centimeters) across.
