Keyhole Sand Dollar
Mellita quinquiesperforata
Markings and exact colorations may vary.
A flat urchin with five slots through the test and a five-petal flower on top.
- Typical size
- 2 to 4 inches
- How often it turns up
- Common
- Collecting
- Restricted
- Handling
- May be alive
Only clean, white, spine-free tests may be collected. Live collection is prohibited in many areas.
If it is brown or fuzzy, it is alive. Put it back in the water, sand side down.
How to tell it apart
- Five elongated slots through the body
- Five-petal pattern on the upper surface
- Bleached white when dead, brown and fuzzy when alive
Where to find these in Florida
Beaches rated very good or excellent for sand dollars. Each page shows today’s score, the best window and access details.
- Anclote Key Preserve State Park · Tarpon Springs
- Beer Can Island (Greer Island) · Longboat Key
- Boca Grande Public Beach · Boca Grande
- Cayo Costa State Park · Cayo Costa
- Dr. Julian G. Bruce St. George Island State Park · St. George Island
- Fort De Soto North Beach · Tierra Verde
- Keewaydin Island · Naples
- North Captiva Island Beach · North Captiva
- T.H. Stone Memorial St. Joseph Peninsula State Park · Port St. Joe
- Tarpon Bay Road Beach · Sanibel
- Tigertail Beach · Marco Island
Found one?
Photograph it and BeachNut ranks the likely matches with a confidence read, then logs it to your collection with the beach and date.
Browsing beaches and the full field guide is free. A free account logs unlimited finds and gives you three photo identifications a day.
Commonly confused with
Sea BiscuitClypeaster species
Sand dollars are flat with slots through the body. Sea biscuits are domed and solid.
More sand dollars in the field guide
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