Summary
A living sand dollar is covered in tiny moving spines and hairs that trap food and pass it to its mouth. Deep Look reveals the hidden feeding structures of an animal most people only know as a beach souvenir.
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All ages
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Teaching resources
Discussion questions
Talk about it
A live sand dollar is far from still — thousands of tiny spines and hair-like structures move food along its body to its mouth. Those structures are how it eats.
- How does a sand dollar catch and move its food?
- Why might so many tiny moving parts work better than one big one?
- How is a living sand dollar different from the empty shell you find on a beach?
Quick work-a-long
Vocabulary: spine, structure, feed, mouth.
Try it: Move a small bead along your palm using only tiny finger wiggles. Write how a sand dollar moves food with many small parts.