ShellSanibel
Read the beach.
Keyhole sand dollar
Mellita quinquiesperforata
fairly common · 2–4 in (5–10 cm)
How to tell it
Flat, round, with a five-petalled flower on top and five elongated slots — the keyholes — cut clean through the test.
What it gets confused with
No other local sand dollar has the slots. Notched sand dollars have marginal notches rather than enclosed holes.
Where it turns up
Sand flats at low water, especially the broad flat at Tarpon Bay Road.
Alive or empty
This is not a shell, it is a living urchin. A live one is brown or purplish and furred with fine moving spines. A dead one is white, bare and brittle. Brown means alive — put it back, face down, where you found it.
Worth knowing
Taking live sand dollars is specifically prohibited, and they are the animal most often taken here by people who did not realise they were alive.
Taking live shells is prohibited in Lee County
That includes anything with the animal still in it, and sand dollars, sea stars and urchins whether or not they look alive. If it moves, if it closes, if it is anchored to the sand — put it back where you found it, the right way up.
A shell with an animal in it is not a souvenir that has been left out. It is the animal’s house, and the beach is not producing spares.