Great South Gems & Minerals

• Sand Dollar Fossil in Limestone •
(France) 

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• Sand Dollar Fossil in Limestone •
(France) 

sand dollar - Fossilized sand dollar - Echinoderm - Scutella stelatta

Fossilized sand dollar. Echinoderm. Scutella stelatta. Miocene age: 15 to 19 million years old.

The sand dollar is a member of the Echinoderm family or which there are 7000 living species, including the brittle stars, the starfish, feather stars, crinoids, sea urchins, sand dollars and the extinct Paracrinoids, all of which are salt water marine animals. The first definitive members of the Echinoderm family appeared near the start of the cambrian period, a period of time between 542 to 488 million years ago.

See other species of Sand Dollars:
www.greatsouth.net/fossils/p-F1405.html
www.greatsouth.net/fossils/p-F1467.html
www.greatsouth.net/fossils/p-F1452.html

See Echinoderms.

Most sand dollars live in shallow coastal waters. Sand dollars that people often find washed up on the shore are the skeletons of dead animals. There are no spines on a sand dollar skeleton. But a sand dollar does have spines when it is alive. And that's why a sand dollar is an echinoderm.

A sand dollar is shaped like a big coin. It is about 2 to 4 inches (5 to 10 centimeters) wide. It's flat, like a sea star. But like a sea urchin, it doesn't have arms. On top of a sand dollar skeleton, you can see a pattern that looks like a flower. This is where some of a sand dollar's tube feet are located. A sand dollar uses its tube feet to breathe. Oxygen from the water goes through the thin skin of the animal's feet.

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