More Critters: The Sand Dollars

While swimming at Playa Bluff one day I noticed a proliferation of flat, brown, circular things in the shallows. I put my snorkel gear on to investigate and pulled up a live sand dollar. It was heavy, fuzzy on the bottom and a little weird...I had never seen a live sand dollar; only the dead, sun-bleached white ones that wash up on the beach. We failed to get a picture that day, but ran across more of them while hiking in Cahuita National Park. Below are pictures of these cool creatures.

Their fuzzy undersides...