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I’ve had this mepygurus marmonti sand dollar from the Jurassic of Madagascar for years now and when I was looking at it I noticed these small circles on the bottom. Are these on every sand dollar, it appears to be a part of it so my guess was some sort of way for tiny legs to attach but it’s just a guess the sand dollar is 7.5 centimeters and each dot is just under 1 millimeter

Hi, First time on this site and in need of advise. A BF & I found this sand dollar fossil at Stinson Beach a couple years ago. I want to make an effort to ensure I’m storing it right. I’m also curious how to clean at least the sand off, but maybe separating the large broken chunk from the (fingers crossed) undamaged sand dollar attached. Would that be detrimental to the fossil? thank you for all time & help, I can confidently say I know nothing. X Jake

What are these? Seems to fat to be a sand dollar. came from Greene county Alabama

Hello members of TFF I'm looking for echinoids (sea urchins/sand dollars) to increase my collection of this kind of fossils. I'm interested in all kind of echinoids but what matter for me its the state of conservation. I have for trade several types of fossils from miocene (shark teeth, bivalves, gastropods...), cretaceous (echinoids, bivalves, gastropods) and Jurassic (echinoids, brachiopods, vertebrate material...) Thanks Vieira

I am going to take my 9 years old son to California in mid February for a week. We plan to collect shark tooth at Ernst Quarries and we also want to collect other fossils along the coast from San Francisco to LA. I did many research and found a few sites that we really want to go. Bean Creek at Scotts Valley for sand dollar, Capitola Beach for shells and maybe whale bone, Carmel valley for crab, and Jalama Beach for fish. I did more research and found out that the Bean Creek location is off limit now. I would like to ask if the other places still ok. We will fly to LA and drive up north to San Francisco so I don't want to have to drive all the way up just to know that we can't collect the fossil. Also if you have other locations that you can share, it is greatly appreciated. Thank you so much and I can't wait still February.

While working on a gravel road I found this beside my truck. I thought it was a piece of broken pottery at first.

The sample image here was collected directly from a Drag Line operator's windrow in a lime rock mine in Southern FL just outside of Naples around the Sable Palm area of the Big Cypress swamp of the Everglades in 1997. The specimen has been completely removed from the limestone petrol (lime rock low density ls) matrix. What is interesting is the general shape of the specimen and how this 5 million year old specimen differs from the present day specimen at the same general location. I am guessing the seas of which the archaic specimens existed in were more challenging to exist in general as the specimen appears more elongate than present day specimen possibly for navigational purpose in higher energy seas than say today. Consequently the respiratory flower on top seems to be larger than today's comparable specimen as a direct consequence in the different morphology.

Hello, I was shell hunting today on Holden Beach and found, what I believe, is a fossil. It appears to be some type of sea biscuit(based on photos I’ve found online). It is very hard and filled with some type of compacted sediment. Any ideas what it might be and how old it is?

Today I decided to try and prep a Sand dollar that was found by @digit and given to me at our March hunt at Cookie Cutter Creek. There was a good amount of matrix covering the top and bottom of this echinoid. While my main focus was uncovering the top portion I decided to also work on the bottom as well. Unfortunately I deleted the before pic by accident, but I took a pic that shows the pile of debris that I have removed so far. This is a work in progress so I will post more pics as I continue to work on it. First pic shows the top 2nd pic shows the bottom. As you can see from the pic all I have used so far is a pin vise and dental pic.

I'm interested in bidding for these sand dollars on our favorite website, but the seller can't tell me where they are from or what the statigraphy is. There are quite a few of them available on various websites, but they hardly give any more information about them. Most of them appear to be from Morocco, although I also saw similar ones from Florida. The given stratigraphy ranges from Cretaceous to Pleistocene and no one names even a genus, let alone a species. I sure would appreciate some details about them if anyone here in the forum has some in-depth information about them.

I have had this sand dollar in my collection for forever, I alway keep it with a modern one. I have no info on it and it was given to me from a friend. Any ID and possible location would be appreciated.

Well, it's been a while since I've been out and about growing my collection of long-since-perished critters, so needless to say, I've been restless. I've been somewhat late in putting up my trip report, as this was doubling as a school project (writing a news feature on PAG (Paleontology Association of GA) for the school news site, 3ten) and everything at the place was taken on an NVidia whereas usually my smartphone does the trick. Anyway, enough BORING excuse backstories! Let's get to the meat of it! This past week was rather hectic for me. A trip to Pensacola where I swam in September ocean thinking it was July, a wisdom tooth surgery happened and the Braves got that sweet, succulent NL East crown, punching their ticket into October ball. Adding this trip on top of that made my fall break jam packed. I'd been waiting for an eternity to go to Sandersville with PAG ever since I heard of the announcement on their page way back in August. As soon as I was greenlit by my the editors of the school news to cover the event for school news, I was going, half dead from wisdom teeth or not. It turns out I wasn't as energy-sapped as I thought I'd be, as my wisdom tooth recovery had been pretty speedy (thank the Lord). Everyone going met in a Walmart parking lot more minutes away. We got told of the treasures we'd find (though I already knew): Periarchus sand dollars (heck yeah!) Crassostrea Gigantissima oysters (yes pls!) And shark teeth/Ray plates (good for me!) After that and a brief discussion on directions and my covering the trip for the school news, we headed off about a minute or so down the road to the landowner's property. We pulled in on a dirt road, and parked in an area of tall grass. The actual site itself was a short trek through the woods to get to the small creek where the Sandersville Limestone was actually exposed. It was somewhat difficult to get the camera equipment down to the creek along with the gear which I was actually using to get stuff out of the matrix, but it wasn't unmanageable and was definitely worth it. Here's what the much of the creek looked like: After getting together all of my pictures for the news, I went ahead and got to the fun part: finding stuff! My first and primary objective was the Periarchus quinquefarius kewi sand dollars, as with my trip to Montgomery in July, I have officially caught the echie bug. It didn't take very long to start finding them protruding from the limestone: After taking four with me, I moved to my next target: the Crassostrea Gigantissima oysters. These hold a special place in my heart, as my uncle Frank and I went driving near Griffins Landing trying to find an access point to get some of these huge oysters to no avail. Also, I heard that these oysters can only be found in Georgia (though i'm not sure about how true that statement is. Any answers regarding this?). To find them, I went a way downstream to where this Oyster exposure is: I was already getting packed with inverts, and I had a lot of stuff to carry back to the car, so I only took the most complete one I saw. Last but not least, I made a pitstop at where most of the group was sifting at a particularly deep and clay-ey part of the creek for shark's teeth and decided to indulge myself in a handful. Here are some of the other guys getting sift-fulls: Next post: My finds of the trip

I've had this for years, tucked away & had forgotten about it. Partial sand dollar with beautiful markings. Looking at it now, I see something on the underside that has me curious. At first they (2 of them) looked like small agates, which seemed odd. A closer look shows what appears to be something inside. There are the usual partial shells & probable steinkerns, but these 2 things are different. I've focused mainly on the larger of the two since it's easier to photograph for me, using a few different angles. I'll let you be the judge on them. Am I just seeing thing's or is there really something in there? Found on the NW Oregon coast.

I keep finding these, always broken, always in the kind of ground that looks like and literally has the texture of the inside of a Butterfinger candy bar. Kinda look like little rock tacos, lol. They're rough like sandpaper and brittle. Bits of sand dollar? There's just not enough for me to tell. Sw Fl. Thanks in advance!

Hello! Here is a larger bi-valve - Is it Glycymeris sp.? As for the sand dollar - Any ideas? These are from the Aurora, North Carolina area. For the sand dollar - I would LOVE a GENUS - but will settle for Family!!!!! I would ALSO love a recommendation for a guide to this area.... I have the Lee Creek Mine articles.... I got a LOT of shark & ray teeth; THOSE i can do! MANY THANKS!

I have a sand dollar that is mostly covered by pyrite. It still has most of it's luster. I have read about pyrite disease and am wondering what I should do to help preserve it. I have also read that having pyrite in the fossil showcases my affect other fossils. Is this true? What should I do to bring back some of the luster? And how would be a good way to seal it to prevent the turning or ruining of the fossil and others?

We found a couple of sand dollar fossils in a hard matrix. From what I have read today I can’t get the hard matrix off without some special air tools. What should I do to preserve the specimens?

Picked this up out of the Dry Frio river bed near Uvalde, Texas Thought it was a sand dollar at first. Is this an Echinoid of some sort?

Could this be the most fantastic find I have ever had? I need identification help before I throw myself a party.... it makes no sense due to my location but I have hundreds of fossils, hundred more waiting to be cleaned but could this be Arkarua Adami? Thanks all, I've never tried online identification before, Falconlily.

From a Miocene area. I found this in the surf. I know it is probably a stretch, but it reminds me of a sand dollar. It is about 1 1/4". Any thoughts? Sorry about the pics and thanks in advance.

( the weird succulent plants under it are Lithops, I wanted natural light and they were in the window) Found this along the San Gabriel river near Georgetown, TX. It was in with some small chunks of shale that had broken off the main formation. Pretty sure it's a sand dollar, and I know it's probably not possible to tell exactly what kind, so what I want to know is this: does finding this mean that I should go back and look again? This was the only fossil I found in the area, but it could have been I just didn't know what to look for. And I know there are some fossils that, if you're finding them, tell you "hey, this is a good area for X, Y, and Z because they require the same conditions to show up", but I'm not sure what those fossils are. I find oysters and occasional snails upstream in the loose river rock, if that helps at all. Though, really, there's nowhere in Texas I've seen that doesn't have fossilized oysters and occasional snails. And would anyone happen to have any links to what marine fossils look like embedded in shale, so I can start dialing my eyes in?