The DI Sand Dollar

If you take your morning walk from the Daufuskie Island Inn at Melrose and walk toward Bloody Point along the beach you will encounter the Daufuskie Island Sand Dollar. To me these are more precious and more valuable than all the diamonds in South Africa. I refer to them as my "sea booty" and I collect them as I go filling my pockets to the brim. My husband felt bad because as he was trying to hold one for me and it shattered into a thousand pieces to return back to the sand forever. They are very frail, some are stained black covered by oil that comes from the tankers coming into the Savannah Port, but many times you will find that perfectly symmetrical round specimen and your heart will be overjoyed. Once I get them back to Atlanta where my primary home is I lay them out carefully on my driveway and spray paint them with white paint. It gets rid of the frail delicate texture, keeps them perfectly white and I can keep my treasures forever without breaking them. They are great for crafts, decorating or to send by mail to someone up north in the cold to remind them that Daufuskie Island is paradise found. Here are a few brief facts about the Sand Dollar: The name "sand dollar" is a reference to its round flat shape, which is similar to a large coin. The term "sand dollar" can also refer to the test left when a sand dollar dies. By the time the test washes up on the beach, it is usually missing its velvety covering of minute spines and has a somewhat bleached and often slightly greenish appearance due to its exposure to the sun. Like other echinoderms, sand dollars have fivefold radial symmetry (pentamerism). Unlike sea urchins, the sand dollar has secondary bilateral symmetry, with a front and back as well as a top and bottom. The anus is toward the rear rather than on the top. Sand dollars live beyond mean low water on top of or just beneath the surface of sandy or muddy areas. The spines on the somewhat flattened underside of the animal allow it to burrow or to slowly creep through the sand. Fine, hair-like cilia cover the tiny spines. Tubefeet or podia that line the food grooves, move food to the mouth opening which is in the center of the star shaped grooves on the underside of the animal called the oral surface. Its food consists of crustacean larvae, small copepods, detritus, diatoms, algae and organic particles that end up in the sandy bottom.[1] On the ocean bottom, sand dollars are frequently found together. This is due in part to their preference for soft bottom areas, which are convenient for their reproduction. The sexes are separate and, as with most echinoids, gametes are released into the water column. The free-swimming larvae metamorphose through several stages before the skeleton or test begins to form, and they become bottom dwellers. When found alive, some sand dollars are a shade of chartreuse green with a velvety feel.