Shell Specimen: Sea Urchins and Sand Dollars

“Shelling” is a fun for professional scientist and amateurs alike. A majority of the shells below are composed of the mineral aragonite CaCO3. Many of my modern or “recent” shells have fossil relatives in my Fossil Gallery. Below I have organized images and data of some of my sea shells.

Special thanks to Tina Petway, Lucy Clampet and Gary Kidder for giving me what I could not find.

Kingdom: Animalia – Phylum: Echinodermata – Subphylum: Echinozoa – Class: Echinoidea – Superorder: Echinacea – Order: Echinoida

(sea urchins)

Late Cretaceous to Holocene

Sea Urchin

Sand Dollar “Teeth”

Kingdom: Animalia – Phylum: Echinodermata – Subphylum: Echinozoa – Class: Echinoidea – Superorder: Gnathostomata – Order: Clypeasteroida

(sand dollars)

Late Paleocene to Holocene

Sand Dollar

Sand Dollar

Data: Dance, S. Peter, Smithsonian Handbook: Shells, The photographic regognition guide to seashells of the world. A Dorling Kindersley Book.