SAND DOLLARS
CLYPEASTERIDAE
Six Keyhole Sand Dollar
Leodia sexiesperforata
Size
To 10cm

Description
:
Brown, grey or mottled disc with
6 slit--like holes. Pentagonal petal design on back.. Dense covering of tiny spines.

Ecology
Rare to see on surface as usually buries itself below sand. Sand dollars possess a rigid skeleton known as a test. The test consists of calcium carbonate plates arranged in a fivefold radial pattern.

The petal-like pattern s consists of five paired rows of pores. The pores are perforations in the endoskeleton through which podia for gas exchange project from the body. The mouth of the sand dollar is located on the bottom of its body at the center of the petal-like pattern. Unlike other urchins, the bodies of sand dollars also display secondary front-to-back bilateral symmetry, with anus of  at the back rather than at the top as in most urchins.

They move by using the tube feet on the spines located on their underside,  feeding on small food particles in the sand. The particles land on the spines, and then are transported to the sand dollar's mouth by its tube feet, pedicellaria (pincers) and mucous-coated cilia.

Life Cycle
Seperate sexes (gonochoric). Fertilization is external. Brooding is common, eggs are held either on the peristome, around the periproct or deep into the concavities on the petaloids.  Embryos develop into planktotrophic larvae (echinoplateus) and live for several months before they sink to the bottom using their tube feet to adhere on the ground where they metamorphose into young urchins.



    Ecological Descriptors
Habitat Size (cm) Diet Behaviour Sex 
Be, S 10 Det I F
Six Keyhole Sand Dollar
448
449
450
Six Keyhole Sand Dollar
Six Keyhole Sand Dollar
(underside)