Sand dollar
Clypeaster subdepressus
- Scientific name
- Clypeaster subdepressus
- Group
- Echinoderms (starfish, urchins...)
- Rarity
- Common
- Where to see it
- Caribbean & Tropical Atlantic
- Conservation status (IUCN)
- Not evaluated
Did you know?
Buried just beneath the sand, it's covered in thousands of tiny mobile spines that help it burrow and sweep food particles toward its mouth.
What defines this group — Echinoderms (starfish, urchins...)
Starfish, urchins and sea cucumbers: a five-fold symmetry found nowhere else in the animal kingdom.
- The body is arranged in fives around a centre: no head, no front, no back.
- They move on hundreds of tube feet driven by water under pressure.
- Many regrow a lost arm; some starfish can rebuild themselves from a single one.