Finding Alive Sand Dollars at a Panamanian Beach

Did you know that when sand dollars are alive, they are not white? We recently went to a beach here in Panama with friends called Las Lajas and there were a ton of sand dollars out on the beach! Check out this photo of my friend holding some sand dollars she found that were alive. You can even see the little tentacles on them. We quickly threw these back into the ocean hoping to save their lives!

I was reading a post recently by @moderndayhippie and he was showing off some of his sand dollar finds from his local beach (check it out - awesome pics). I commented that his black sand dollars could be left in the sun and they would bleach out and turn white. I learned this from a friend here in Panama a few months ago!

We walked up and down and got a lot of pieces as well as whole ones! They are so fragile, I am not surprised that we found so many pieces and so few whole ones!

When we were there, the tide was really low. We had to walk a long way out to reach the ocean. Perhaps that is why so many sand dollars were visible on shore.

When we arrived home, we left the black sand dollar (pictured above) out in the sun as it was already dead. None of the tentacles were moving when we found it. After a few days, the sand dollar started turning white. The tentacles also fell off like tiny little prickly hairs.

I am pretty excited to have some sand dollars and one that is whole (let's see if we can keep it that way). Today, I was looking and noticed that one was broke and the "insides" were coming out. I had heard that they look like little doves flying when broken in half. What do you think?
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Even the inside of them is pretty cool looking. You can see a few more of the "dove" or butterfly shapes inside.

It was pretty exciting to find these sand dollars at the beach. I hope we get to go back soon and look for some more!
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