How to identify a sand dollar
Flat disc with a five-petal radial pattern. Living animals are covered in short brown-purple spines; the familiar white 'shell' is the bleached test.
- Flat disc silhouette
- Five-petal radial pattern on top
- Fragile — handle bleached tests with care
- Family
- Clypeasteroida
- Class
- Echinoderm
- Regions
- East Coast · Gulf Coast
- Habitat
- Sandy Intertidal · Sandy Subtidal
- Collector level
- Beginner
Collect with care
- Only collect bleached, empty tests — living sand dollars must be returned to the water.
- A purple-brown tint or short spines means the animal is alive; place it gently back in shallow water.
In your journal
- Trace the five-petal pattern in your journal — the geometry is different on every species.
- Record whether your find is a whole test or a fragment; both count as data.