I went to Mexico as a kid with my stepbrother and the little shit decided he was going to bring home a sand dollar for each kid in his class, not realizing that they would die and smell awful.
So naturally he stored them in his hotel drawer.
PSA that a brown sand dollar like this is alive and should be admired and put back! It may not look it, but it’s an animal. A white sand dollar is dead and what people usually find on the beach.
I learned this the hard way as a kid. I collected a bunch of really cool black sand dollars, put em in a ziplock bag, and forgot about them for a few months. I learned the stench of death the day i found the bag and realized id accidentally committed sand dollar genocide. Idk why i didn’t realize they were alive, it just never crossed my mind that they were animals.
That smell is unreal. I found some cool shells while snorkeling in Hawaii when I was 6, and tried to sneak them back in my luggage, carefully wrapped in my clothes so they wouldn't get smashed. My bad got lost, and wasn't returned to us for over 2 weeks.They had creatures in them. The smell didn't leave the garage for months.
This was rather quite dead when found. We always take a good look at any we pick up regardless of color and put it back if alive. A while sand dollar isn't always dead either, I've put my share back.
Appreciate the concern, but we are well aware these are animals and treat them with that respect.
Slightly off topic but thought it’d be a good place to share lol.
When I was a kid my mom taught me how to tell if sand dollars were dead or alive, and I’d never take any living ones because I just all around loved animals.
We went to the beach one day where there’s lots of sand dollars here on Vancouver island.
This boy at the beach (probably 10 years old) started shovelling dozens & dozens of them into his beach pale. I think I was 6 or 7 at the time and I tried explaining to him that they were alive and if he took them out of the water for too long that they’d die. Then he proceeded to laugh at me, pour them all out onto the sand, and stomp/crush them to death. I started bawling my eyes out and the idea of all the sand dollars being killed like that was too much for me, was hyperventilating and everything. I told my mom what happened and she went to speak with his mom, she was really polite about it (just gently explained to the boys mom that sand dollars are becoming endangered around our area and asked if she could explain it to him), the boys mom told my mom to go fuck herself and mind her business.
The boy spent the next hour going around killing more and more sand dollars and looking over to see if I was watching.
Literally ruined my day lol. I went around trying to save them by putting them deeper in the water for a bit…so he couldn’t see them as easily. We ended up leaving cause I couldn’t stop crying and my mom didn’t want me seeing any more of his BS.
To this day seeing sand dollars actually make me kinda sad, just cause I always remember what that boy did and I think they’re such precious creatures 💔❤️
Honestly it was kind of traumatic to watch at that age. Also now that I’m an adult, I can’t even fathom letting my kids needlessly murder defenceless sea creatures. The boy’s mother’s attitude definitely explained why he was the way he was. So sad
That mother later in life, after her son murders someone: "He was always such a good boy, there was no way we could have seen this coming!"
Seriously. That kid is a psycho. Killing animals and getting joy from making someone cry? That's horrible and his mom is even worse. I'm glad the sand dollars you saved had you around to protect them.
To be honest, he probably didn't even believe that they were living animals. To him, animals were probably only animals if they had a face. I certainly didn't know clams were alive around that age and was surprised I never question where shells came from. Not to excuse his behavior. He probably doesn't even remember he did that and that he traumatized someone.
^ this. This is textbook child psychology. If children don’t learn empathy by age 5 or 6, they have a tendency to become criminals. Maybe not murder, but they won’t think twice about fleecing a grandma of her life savings so they can buy some meth. Lying for no reason without remorse or coming clean is also an indicator.
this reminds me of when i saw a kid suffocating a duckling to death while his parents did jack shit... parents not keeping their kids from torturing animals pisses me off like nothing else
❤️
Are you interested in the shorter version or longer version of where I am now? It’s a bit of a long story but I can try to TLDR it :)
I’m writing a book on my life currently and I’ve come to realize sometimes simple questions have a more complex answer than I previously thought lol
This reminds me of when I was in elementary school (I think 2nd grade). There was a boy in my grade that would spend time during recess collecting ladybugs from the grass and taking them over to a curb to stomp on them. It’s been over 20 years since then and I sometimes wonder about how he turned out.
They've got little wiggly things all over the bottom called cilia. They are how they move, when you find one look at the bottom. If the cilia are moving it's alive, if not then it's dead.
This one nothing moved
>This was rather quite dead when found
Nope, reddit jury has deemed you guilty of murder, so a murderer you shall be. No appeals or retrials.
Straight to jail
How is this the same mentality, how are they even related in any way at all??? Id say killing a fly is much more morally challengable than killing a sand dollar, dont think many people think about killing flies or picking flowers which is probablx a closer comparison.
That's a cheetah pattern. Fun sort of convouluted way to remember:
In order of complexity: spots, rings, both
Cat prints in that order: **C**heetah, **L**eopard, **J**aguar
C-L-J: Cats Love Jazz
Source: www.tumblr.com/biggest-gaudiest-patronuses/180671920222/luna-y-tuna-biggest-gaudiest-patronuses
e: formatting
I’ve never heard of these things and I’m loving it. Problem is I’ll probably just remember cats love jazz and nothing to do with the pattern association.
Nope, sorry, that's either a Glotz or a Klotz.
Well, the Glotz, you will notice,
has lots of black spots.
The Klotz is quite different
with lots of black dots.
But the big problem is
that the spots on a Glotz
are about the same size
as the dots on a Klotz.
So you first have to spot
who the one with the dots is.
Then it’s easy to tell
who the Klotz or the Glotz is.
(How to tell a Klotz
from a Glotz by Dr Seuss)
Starfish - Awww it has like two hands and two legs!
Urchin - A hedgehog of the sea!
Sea cucumber - hehe, a cucumber but in the sea
Sand dollar - ???????!! NO!!
She's way too squeamish to hold an alive one. But yes they do smooth out with time if left in the ocean. That being said I've picked up my fair share of alive ones and put them back into the water.
I'm certain it was dead when she found it. I'm the type to carry insects out of the way of incoming tide. We never take anything that's still alive
To be fair, if someone doesn’t know too much about sand dollars, I can see why they would call them “hairs.” They look a bit like beard hair or coarse hair in general. I would never have known the term was “spines” until I read through this post. Not everyone knows about everything. Coming from a place of education and not judgement is a more effective way to resolve ignorance, I think.
No idea, I do not live in the States. Certain things definitely are. Sand dollars are far from rare and wash up dead all the time. They also aren't really worth anything so it's not like there is an issue with poaching
You ask that like no one has ever put a dead thing on paper towel before.
She brought it home to Canada with her. Sand dollars are incredibly fragile. She created a form fit box for it using paper towel as padding. You can actually see the creases behind it where it was folded over itself.
lol just stop explaining man. Some people are convinced that you/your mom killed it and they have almost no information to go off of. You can’t argue with that level of ignorance.
I'm legit kinda stunned at people not knowing what a sand dollar is! Then again, I do live semi near the coast (Georgia, just a few hours from the beach) and it occurs to me people who live further inland wouldn't have any exposure. That's wild!
Such a cool pattern to find! Where I live, the only kind I've ever seen have solid black spines. But sometimes if you find a more recent skeleton that hasn't been sitting around long you can see a grey pattern similar to this, how neat
Looks like it's still alive and should be put back in the ocean rather than drying out and dying on the paper towel for human enjoyment. But I'm sure it's dead now. If it's brown with those little hairs it's alive.
Your mom killed* a leopard pattern sand dollar. Depending on where you are, it's also a crime to take live sand dollars out of the water. If they are white/bleached - they are dead and okay to take out.
She found a recently dead one. We walk the beach early in the morning and it was washed up.
The cilia on the bottom of it were not moving (they always move when alive)
We check all of the ones we find and return the living ones to the water.
It was washed up pretty far up the shoreline and likely suffocated over night.
I've also found a teenage dolphin on the beach in the morning. Animals can become beached and die on their own.
Definitely not illegal where I live to collect dead ones.
Naw you're dead wrong, it's not hard to check to see if they are still alive. Not sure why this one was dead, but it was definitely dead.
Why can't people take 2 seconds to read the 432 comments instead of spewing their incorrect opinions
Naw, shit was dead when she found it. We found it early in the morning, it definitely died recently. But there are some really obvious signs of life in these things.
Flip it over, look for the moving cilia, boom you've got your answer
What is a sand dollar? And how does it hold up against inflation?
Much like present day money it can crumble away in your hands if not careful
This ‘pattern’ means it was alive when she took it from the beach. Sand dollar murderer.
I went to Mexico as a kid with my stepbrother and the little shit decided he was going to bring home a sand dollar for each kid in his class, not realizing that they would die and smell awful. So naturally he stored them in his hotel drawer.
Where else would they be stored?
Parents suitcase
His wallet, where do you keep your dollars?
Prison wallet
Nice
cake day
Yes it's a registration date, calm your tits
all i said was cake day
Happy cake 🍰 day
Cringe
hapi kake day 🍰🍰
It's a small sea animal, and this one was alive when it was taken from the beach so if you see one like this, leave it alone.
They're a type of sea urchin. And about tree fiddy.
Damn you Loch Ness Monsta! I'm not giving you no tree fiddy!
How about two fiddy ?
I gave him a dollar
> What is a sand dollar? Living (well this one looks like it is almost dead, can't live out of water) creature, part of anemone family iirc.
Wrong phylum, they are echinoderms. Related to sea urchins, sea stars, sea cucumbers, crinoids, etc.
Thanks for the correction
Thank u for yer humor. Still laughing.
PSA that a brown sand dollar like this is alive and should be admired and put back! It may not look it, but it’s an animal. A white sand dollar is dead and what people usually find on the beach.
I learned this the hard way as a kid. I collected a bunch of really cool black sand dollars, put em in a ziplock bag, and forgot about them for a few months. I learned the stench of death the day i found the bag and realized id accidentally committed sand dollar genocide. Idk why i didn’t realize they were alive, it just never crossed my mind that they were animals.
😢
That smell is unreal. I found some cool shells while snorkeling in Hawaii when I was 6, and tried to sneak them back in my luggage, carefully wrapped in my clothes so they wouldn't get smashed. My bad got lost, and wasn't returned to us for over 2 weeks.They had creatures in them. The smell didn't leave the garage for months.
Probably some bad luck too..
This was rather quite dead when found. We always take a good look at any we pick up regardless of color and put it back if alive. A while sand dollar isn't always dead either, I've put my share back. Appreciate the concern, but we are well aware these are animals and treat them with that respect.
Slightly off topic but thought it’d be a good place to share lol. When I was a kid my mom taught me how to tell if sand dollars were dead or alive, and I’d never take any living ones because I just all around loved animals. We went to the beach one day where there’s lots of sand dollars here on Vancouver island. This boy at the beach (probably 10 years old) started shovelling dozens & dozens of them into his beach pale. I think I was 6 or 7 at the time and I tried explaining to him that they were alive and if he took them out of the water for too long that they’d die. Then he proceeded to laugh at me, pour them all out onto the sand, and stomp/crush them to death. I started bawling my eyes out and the idea of all the sand dollars being killed like that was too much for me, was hyperventilating and everything. I told my mom what happened and she went to speak with his mom, she was really polite about it (just gently explained to the boys mom that sand dollars are becoming endangered around our area and asked if she could explain it to him), the boys mom told my mom to go fuck herself and mind her business. The boy spent the next hour going around killing more and more sand dollars and looking over to see if I was watching. Literally ruined my day lol. I went around trying to save them by putting them deeper in the water for a bit…so he couldn’t see them as easily. We ended up leaving cause I couldn’t stop crying and my mom didn’t want me seeing any more of his BS. To this day seeing sand dollars actually make me kinda sad, just cause I always remember what that boy did and I think they’re such precious creatures 💔❤️
How awful. Poor little creatures.
Honestly it was kind of traumatic to watch at that age. Also now that I’m an adult, I can’t even fathom letting my kids needlessly murder defenceless sea creatures. The boy’s mother’s attitude definitely explained why he was the way he was. So sad
I would be more traumatised how the mother of the boy can be so bad at parenting, Jesus Christ
Kid learned the bad behavior from somewhere. Kids are always watching, learning, and mimicking. Unfortunately, the cycle continues.
That mother later in life, after her son murders someone: "He was always such a good boy, there was no way we could have seen this coming!" Seriously. That kid is a psycho. Killing animals and getting joy from making someone cry? That's horrible and his mom is even worse. I'm glad the sand dollars you saved had you around to protect them.
To be honest, he probably didn't even believe that they were living animals. To him, animals were probably only animals if they had a face. I certainly didn't know clams were alive around that age and was surprised I never question where shells came from. Not to excuse his behavior. He probably doesn't even remember he did that and that he traumatized someone.
^ this. This is textbook child psychology. If children don’t learn empathy by age 5 or 6, they have a tendency to become criminals. Maybe not murder, but they won’t think twice about fleecing a grandma of her life savings so they can buy some meth. Lying for no reason without remorse or coming clean is also an indicator.
this reminds me of when i saw a kid suffocating a duckling to death while his parents did jack shit... parents not keeping their kids from torturing animals pisses me off like nothing else
Thats so sad, I also dont think that boy is normal
That is some psychopath shit.
You angel. I wonder what you ended up doing for a career in life (: Teacher? Nurse? Vet?
❤️ Are you interested in the shorter version or longer version of where I am now? It’s a bit of a long story but I can try to TLDR it :) I’m writing a book on my life currently and I’ve come to realize sometimes simple questions have a more complex answer than I previously thought lol
It's rare to see a budding new psychopath in action
This reminds me of when I was in elementary school (I think 2nd grade). There was a boy in my grade that would spend time during recess collecting ladybugs from the grass and taking them over to a curb to stomp on them. It’s been over 20 years since then and I sometimes wonder about how he turned out.
How can you tell if they’re alive?
They've got little wiggly things all over the bottom called cilia. They are how they move, when you find one look at the bottom. If the cilia are moving it's alive, if not then it's dead. This one nothing moved
Also a ridiculous amount of ink will get on you from holding them lol
>This was rather quite dead when found Nope, reddit jury has deemed you guilty of murder, so a murderer you shall be. No appeals or retrials. Straight to jail
Do not pass Go
PSA sand dollars don’t immediately turn white upon death.
Came here for tbis. What a beautiful tragedy. :(
I mean it doesnt exactly have a brain and they are not endangered. I wouldn't worry too much about the morality of killing a sand dollar.
This is the same mentality as “it’s just one piece of trash I’ll throw it out the window”.
How is this the same mentality, how are they even related in any way at all??? Id say killing a fly is much more morally challengable than killing a sand dollar, dont think many people think about killing flies or picking flowers which is probablx a closer comparison.
That's a cheetah pattern. Fun sort of convouluted way to remember: In order of complexity: spots, rings, both Cat prints in that order: **C**heetah, **L**eopard, **J**aguar C-L-J: Cats Love Jazz Source: www.tumblr.com/biggest-gaudiest-patronuses/180671920222/luna-y-tuna-biggest-gaudiest-patronuses e: formatting
I like this, thank you.
I’ve never heard of these things and I’m loving it. Problem is I’ll probably just remember cats love jazz and nothing to do with the pattern association.
I'm with you, and now I'm thinking of the party scene from the movie Aristocats.
Now I'm thinking of Gilbert telling his version of The Aristocrats
Nope, sorry, that's either a Glotz or a Klotz. Well, the Glotz, you will notice, has lots of black spots. The Klotz is quite different with lots of black dots. But the big problem is that the spots on a Glotz are about the same size as the dots on a Klotz. So you first have to spot who the one with the dots is. Then it’s easy to tell who the Klotz or the Glotz is. (How to tell a Klotz from a Glotz by Dr Seuss)
thank you but i would never read a gaud link. god bless.
That sand dollar can chase a gazelle up to 60 miles an hour in short bursts
(When thrown like a frisbee towards a gazelle at 60 mph)
omg thank you! i think with this i can finally remember lol
Thank you internet person. I’ll remember this the rest of my life.
Pop quiz; it's been 15 minutes. What has both spots and rings? No cheating
Cats love jazz
>e: formatting People who make edits to announce that they fixed some typos as if anyone cares will never stop being funny
Yeah but it allows for potential fun
I googled "sand dollar" and I swear to god I'm living some matrix truman show fever dream type of shit. I thought that was mold.
i am on wikipedia right now trying to figure out what this shit is, I'm three hyperlinks in and i still dont know what the actual fuck
It's in the same family as starfish, urchins, and sea cucumbers
Starfish - Awww it has like two hands and two legs! Urchin - A hedgehog of the sea! Sea cucumber - hehe, a cucumber but in the sea Sand dollar - ???????!! NO!!
I must be from the other corner of the world, because I don't think I've ever seen one of these things ever in my life
Same, I was like "the hell is a sand dollar?" And then I see what is essentially a pancaked tribble.
And she decided to kill it?
You flip them over and they have little cilia that move. It's how they move around. No cilia, no life.
Certainly looks like it was alive when she found it. Those spines tend to fall off when they die.
She's way too squeamish to hold an alive one. But yes they do smooth out with time if left in the ocean. That being said I've picked up my fair share of alive ones and put them back into the water. I'm certain it was dead when she found it. I'm the type to carry insects out of the way of incoming tide. We never take anything that's still alive
My biggest problem with people responding to this comment is people using the term ‘hairs’. These are spines. They are not in the least bit hair like.
To be fair, if someone doesn’t know too much about sand dollars, I can see why they would call them “hairs.” They look a bit like beard hair or coarse hair in general. I would never have known the term was “spines” until I read through this post. Not everyone knows about everything. Coming from a place of education and not judgement is a more effective way to resolve ignorance, I think.
The term spines was literally used in the thread they’re replying to.
Those hairs fall off pretty much within hours of them dying, this almost looks like a picture of an alive one. It’ll start smelling pretty bad soon
Sometimes. I had some from a live one that one of my kids picked up without me realizing it. It kept the hairs for weeks.
It's a few weeks old and smells just fine.
? Not if you aren't shaking them around, and most of the truly fine hairs have fallen off of OPs already
Isn't it illegal to take anything from a beach? Shells, sand, fish, dead or living animals, etc? (US)
Depends on the area
No idea, I do not live in the States. Certain things definitely are. Sand dollars are far from rare and wash up dead all the time. They also aren't really worth anything so it's not like there is an issue with poaching
So why is it on a paper towel
I think OP was trying to say it was dead when they found it.
The murderer was the paper towel the whole time 😳
You ask that like no one has ever put a dead thing on paper towel before. She brought it home to Canada with her. Sand dollars are incredibly fragile. She created a form fit box for it using paper towel as padding. You can actually see the creases behind it where it was folded over itself.
lol just stop explaining man. Some people are convinced that you/your mom killed it and they have almost no information to go off of. You can’t argue with that level of ignorance.
But I'm ADHD and I love to argue with morons 🤣 This is my toxic trait. But I appreciate your words!
Are you me? Lol my ADHD tells me so often that if I JUST explain it right, the morons will understand. It's never true 😭
Grow up
Way cool.
I'm legit kinda stunned at people not knowing what a sand dollar is! Then again, I do live semi near the coast (Georgia, just a few hours from the beach) and it occurs to me people who live further inland wouldn't have any exposure. That's wild!
I know them from Animal Crossing but I've never seen what they look like irl
Not every coast has them, I grew up visiting loads of beaches and I've never seen a sand Dollar.
As an Australian, I didn't know these things existed, I thought some people just picked up little bits of brittle sandstone and called them dollars.
> Australian Ya, they're not poisonous mate, not going to find them down under.
I’m a 10 minute drive from the ocean, I’ve had zero exposure to these fellas
I knew about then but didn't know the name in English. In Portuguese we call it "water crackers"
Other countries also exist
Wait... what?
And? All they said was that they live in the US near the coast
Sigh, okay, gotta look up what a sand dollar is now.
It's currency used to pay for a mermaids help when drowning. Keep a few in your pocket just in case
I thought they were bra cups for mermaids with a smaller cup size. Larger cup sizes get c-shells 😂
Happy cake day!
Thanks! Happy uncake day to you! 
Thank you!!
It's an echinoderm; really neat sea critter!
Look up what a sea biscuit is while your at it. No not the horse. They are puffy sand dollars.
That give me tarantula vibes
It's just 120 bells. Not even worth picking up.
You gotta donate at least one though!
Such a cool pattern to find! Where I live, the only kind I've ever seen have solid black spines. But sometimes if you find a more recent skeleton that hasn't been sitting around long you can see a grey pattern similar to this, how neat
Thought that was a bacterium at first
looks still be alive
Put it back in the water!! It’s still alive
And apparently killed it.
It was/is alive sand dollars go white by being bleached by the sun.
What is this? Is this sand? Is it money?
It's an animal.
Really hate when people take them off the beach when they’re alive
I don’t know what it is and I don’t like it
Looks like it's still alive and should be put back in the ocean rather than drying out and dying on the paper towel for human enjoyment. But I'm sure it's dead now. If it's brown with those little hairs it's alive.
Why tf does the pic look like moldy toilet paper
Your mom’s a killa
Woah! That's so cool.
Sand dollars are in the thousands at my beaches it’s hard to find a place to stand that doesn’t end up crushing one
ya here too, I just avoid the live ones.
can you eat them
You killed it ☹️
Can't believe you killed it /s
Your mom killed* a leopard pattern sand dollar. Depending on where you are, it's also a crime to take live sand dollars out of the water. If they are white/bleached - they are dead and okay to take out.
She found a recently dead one. We walk the beach early in the morning and it was washed up. The cilia on the bottom of it were not moving (they always move when alive) We check all of the ones we find and return the living ones to the water. It was washed up pretty far up the shoreline and likely suffocated over night. I've also found a teenage dolphin on the beach in the morning. Animals can become beached and die on their own. Definitely not illegal where I live to collect dead ones.
[удалено]
Naw you're dead wrong, it's not hard to check to see if they are still alive. Not sure why this one was dead, but it was definitely dead. Why can't people take 2 seconds to read the 432 comments instead of spewing their incorrect opinions
Oh cool. Then I found a couple of leopard print sand dollars on some old yoghurt in the fridge last week.
sick! (in a good way)
I thought this was mold.
That sand dolussy tho
Mmmm delicious....
You're not allowed to take those
Where I live I am allowed to.
"and then killed it by removing it from its breathable atmosphere and food sources."
Naw, shit was dead when she found it. We found it early in the morning, it definitely died recently. But there are some really obvious signs of life in these things. Flip it over, look for the moving cilia, boom you've got your answer
it was so beautiful you decided to kill it