Mostly about my backyard chickens. (Boring, I know), but there are a lot of us out here. Mine are only kept as pampered pets. I could eat a neighbor's chicken, but not MINE. There may be a comment on current events only if I get riled up enough. And there will always be a cartoon or a joke to cheer us. I promise to try my very best to respond to comments. Now I have to figure out how this blogger thingy works....
When you're walking on the beach, you may find a sand dollar. What you'll usually find is something called a test,
which is the skeleton of a dead sand dollar. The test is usually white
or grayish-white, with a star-shaped marking in its center. The name for
these animals (yes, they are animals!) came from their likeness to
silver dollars.
When they are alive, sand dollars look much
different. They are covered with short, velvety spines that may be
purple, reddish brown, yellowish, gray, green or black in color.
Here you can learn more about what sand dollars look like, what they eat, where they live and how they reproduce.
What Is a Sand Dollar?
Sand
dollars are echinoderms, which means they are related to sea stars, sea
cucumbers, and sea urchins. In fact, they are basically flat sea
urchins and are in the same class, Echinoidea, as sea urchins. This
class is divided into two groups - the regular echinoids (sea urchins
and pencil urchins) and irregular echinoids (includes heart urchins, sea
biscuits, and sand dollars). The irregular echinoids have a front, a
back and basic bilateral symmetry on top of the "normal" pentameral
symmetry (5 parts around a center) that regular echinoids possess.
The
test of the sand dollar is its endoskeleton - it is called an
endoskeleton because it lies underneath the sand dollar's spines and
skin. The test is made of fused calcareous plates. This is different
than the skeletons of other echinoderms.
Sea stars, basket stars, and brittle
stars have smaller plates that are flexible, and the skeleton of sea
cucumbers is made up of tiny ossicles buried in the body. The top
(aboral) surface of the sand dollar test has a pattern that looks like
five petals. There are 5 sets of tube feet that extend from these petals, which the sand dollar uses for respiration.
The sand dollar's anus is located at
the rear of the animal. Sand dollars can move by using the spines
located on their underside.
Species and Classification of Sand Dollars
There are many species of sand dollars. Those commonly found in the United States include:
Echinarachnius parma(Common
sand dollar), which may be found in temperate waters of both the
Pacific and the Atlantic Ocean. They are 2-4 inches across and have
spines that are purple, reddish-purple or brown in color.
Dendraster excentricus(Excentric,
western, or Pacific sand dollar) are found in the Pacific Ocean from
Alaska to Baja, California. These sand dollars grow to about 4 inches
across and have gray, purple or blackish spines.
Clypeaster subdepressus(Sand dollar, sea biscuit), which are found in the Atlantic Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, from the Carolinas to Brazil.
Mellita sp. (Keyhole
sand dollars or keyhole urchins), which are found in tropical waters in
the Atlantic, Pacific and the Caribbean Sea. There are approximately 11 species of keyhole sand dollars.
Sand dollars are classified as follows:
Kingdom: Animalia
Phylum: Echinodermata
Class: Clypeasteroida (includes sand dollars and sea biscuits)
Habitat and Distribution
As their name suggests, sand dollars prefer to live in the sand.
They can use their spines to burrow
into the sand, where they seek protection and food. They live in
relatively shallow waters.
Feeding and Diet
Sand dollars
feed on small food particles in the sand. The particles land on the
spines, and then are transported to the sand dollar's mouth by its tube
feet, pedicellaria (pincers) and mucous-coated cilia. Some sea urchins
rest on their edges in the sand to maximize their ability to catch prey
that is floating by. Like other sea urchins, the mouth of a sand dollar
is called Aristotle's lantern
and is made up of 5 jaws. If you pick up a sand dollar test and shake
it gently, you may hear the pieces of the mouth rattling inside.
Reproduction
There
are male and female sand dollars, although, from the outside, it is
difficult to tell which is which. Reproduction is sexual and
accomplished by the sand dollars releasing eggs and sperm into the
water.
The fertilized eggs develop into tiny
larvae, which feed and move using cilia. After several weeks, the larva
settles to the bottom, where it metamorphoses
Conservation and Human Uses
Visit a shell shop and you may find poems or sand dollars with the Legend of the Sand Dollar,
which references Easter, Christmas, and Jesus. Some references say that
the 5-pointed "star" in the center of the top of the sand dollar's test
is said to represent the Star of Bethlehem that guided the wise men to
the baby Jesus. The 5 openings in the test are said to represent Jesus's
wounds during his crucifixion - the 4 wounds in his hands and feet and
the 5th in his side. On the underside of the sand dollar test, it is
said that there is an outline of a Christmas poinsettia. The legend also
says that if you break open a sand dollar, you'll find 5 "doves of
peace" inside. These doves are actually the 5 jaws of the sand dollar's
mouth (Aristotle's lantern).
Dried sand dollar tests are often
sold in shops for decorative purposes or souvenirs. In addition to the
legend of the sand dollar related to Jesus, other lore about sand
dollars references the washed-up tests as mermaid coins or coins from
Atlantis.
Sand dollars may be affected by fishing, especially from bottom trawling, ocean acidification, which may affect the ability to form the test; climate change, which might affect available habitat; and collection.
(Although you can find plenty of information on how to preserve sand
dollars, you should collect only dead sand dollars, never live ones.)
Sand dollars are not eaten by humans, but they can be prey for sea stars, fish, and crabs.
The Armed Forces think I’m too old to track down terrorists. You
can’t be older than 42 to join the military. They’ve got the whole thing
ass-backward.
Instead of sending 18-year olds off to fight, they ought to take us
old guys. You shouldn’t be able to join a military unit until you’re at
least 55.
For starters, researchers say 18-year-olds think about sex every 10
seconds. Old guys only think about sex a couple of times a month,
leaving us more than 280,000 additional seconds per day to concentrate
on the enemy.
Young guys haven’t lived long enough to be cranky, and a cranky
soldier is a dangerous soldier. ‘My back hurts! I can’t sleep, I’m tired
and hungry.’ We are bad-tempered and impatient, and maybe letting us
kill some asshole that desperately deserves it will make us feel better
and shut us up for a while.
An 18-year-old doesn’t even like to get up before 10 am. Old guys
always get up early to pee, so what the hell. Besides, like I said, I’m
tired and can’t sleep and since I’m already up, I may as well be up
killing some fanatical son-of-a-bitch.
If captured, we couldn’t spill the beans because we’d forget where we
put them. In fact, name, rank, and serial number would be a real
brainteaser.
Boot camp would be easier for old guys. We’re used to getting
screamed and yelled at and we’re used to soft food. We’ve also developed
an appreciation for guns. We’ve been using them for years as an excuse
to get out of the house, away from the screaming and yelling.
They could lighten up on the obstacle course, however. I’ve been in
combat and never saw a single 20-foot wall with rope hanging over the
side, nor did I ever do any pushups after completing basic training.
Actually, the running part is kind of a waste of energy, too. I’ve never seen anyone outrun a bullet.
An 18-year-old has the whole world ahead of him. He’s still learning
to shave, to start a conversation with a pretty girl. He still hasn’t
figured out that a baseball cap has a brim to shade his eyes, not the
back of his head.
These are all great reasons to keep our kids at home to learn a little more about life before sending them off into harm’s way.
Let us old guys track down those terrorists. The last thing an enemy
would want to see is a couple million pissed off old farts with bad
attitudes and automatic weapons who know that their best years are
already behind them.
HEY!! How about recruiting Women over 50… in menopause!!! You think
MEN have attitudes?? Ohhhhhhhhhhhh my God!!! If nothing else put them on
border patrol. They’ll have it secured the first night!
Too bad I ever learned to swim - would love to see this!
In this fascinating new adventure, Jonathan joins a team of underwater
archaeologists who are excavating the sunken wreck of Blackbeard's
pirate ship the "Queen Anne's Revenge" off the coast of North Carolina
near Beaufort. He assists underwater and then tours the lab where
artifacts are conserved for display at the museum.
