These sand dollars or snapper biscuits were collected just below the low-tide level. If you step barefoot on one it feels like sandpaper, because of the covering of tiny spines. Sand dollars swallow vast quantities of muddy sand to extract food. When the animals die their disc-like shells are often cast up onto the beach, usually broken into segments.
Te whakamahi i tēnei tūemi
Te Ara - The Encyclopedia of New Zealand
Photograph by Melanie Lovell-Smith
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