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sand bar

Cake sand dollar Arachnoides placenta Family Arachnoididae

On Chek Jawa, Cake sand dollars are the most commonly seen sand dollars. Large groups of them are often buried just beneath the sediments, sometimes leaving tell-tale patterns on the surface.

Fragile Dollars: They are quite easily broken if carelessly stepped upon. So please look where you are going to avoid these killing sand dollars.

Cake sand dollar Food: Cake sand dollars eat detritus. These sand dollars have lots of tiny tube feet which are used to harvest small organic particles found among the sand grains. They have teeth in their central mouth, which are used to crush and bite the particles.

Tiny Cake sand dollar

Sand dollar mouth

quick facts
Diameter to about 8cm, common

Classification:
Order Clypeasteroida
Class Echinoidea
Phylum Echinodermata

See also ...
Echinoderms in general
Sand dollars in general

Links
Arachnoides and Cylpeasteroida from the Echinoid Directory on the London Natural History Museum website: a technical description of the family and order to which the Cake sand dollar belongs.

Other references

Chuang, S. H., 1961. On Malayan Shores. Muwu Shosa, Singapore.225 pp., plates 1-112.

a companion website to the chek jawa guidebook website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com

a companion website to the chek jawa guidebook
website©ria tan 2003 www.wildsingapore.com