Fossil Sand Dollar Mineral Rock Approx. 0.5-1 Inch

Information Card Included

The common sand dollar that washes up on the beach is so named because it resembles a coin.  A sand collar that washes up on the beach is actually the exoskeleton or test of a type of sea animal known as an echinoid.  Other types of echinoids are sea urchins, sea cucumbers and star fish. 

This sand dollar is fossilized and was found in a phosphate mine in the Western Sahara Desert in a strata of the Earth dated to the Pliocene Epoch making this fossil 2 million to 11 million year old.  The specie of this fossilized sand dollar is Heliophora and is also commonly known as a skirted sand dollar.  Some echinoids from the Pliocene Epoch became extinct, but the sand dollar survived and can be found living on ocean floors around the world. 

Origin: Morocco, Africa