SOUTHERN SHORES, N.C. — The bright white sand dollars prized by Outer Banks beachcombers and coveted by craft makers were once masters of their sea-bottom habitat.

Taking home a live sand dollar from a South Carolina beach is illegal. On Hilton Head Island, you could be hit with a $500 fine. So how can you tell if the sand dollar is still alive?

These spines are also a tell-tale way to see if a sand dollar is still alive. When in doubt, leave them be because there’s a hefty $500 fine for taking a live sand dollar off the Lowcountry shores.

Sand dollars are an echinoderm in the same family as sea stars, sea urchins and sea cucumbers. All echinoderms are radially symmetrical (round) and have their mouth on the ventral side (underneath).

“Many people have a hard time telling if a sand dollar is dead or alive, and we often see people collecting live ones at the beach simply because they don't know any better,” Mensch said.

Sand dollars are found worldwide and there are many different species, each with their own unique characteristics. The aquarium warns that if the sand dollar is still fuzzy it’s likely alive and ...

The Sanibel Sea School, which teaches children and adults about sea life, says there are ways you can tell if a sand dollar is alive. They have hair-like spines that help them move along the sand.

If you put a sand dollar in your palm for about a minute, a living sand dollar will leave a harmless, yellow tint. If there's no tint, this means the sand dollar is dead, according to the Sanibel ...

Usually a coveted prize for beachcombers, large numbers of sand dollars washed ashore on the northern Oregon Coast recently. Thousands of sand dollars - alive and dead - were cast up on beaches ...

Sand dollars are found worldwide and there are many different species, each with their own unique characteristics. The best indication that the sand dollar is still alive is if it is still ...

A live sand dollar is darker in color — usually reddish, brown or purple— and its skeleton or “test” is “covered by a thin, velvety skin and numerous short spines,” according to McMillan.

When alive, sand dollars are brown or purple instead of white. They are covered in thousands of tiny spines that catch larvae, plankton and algae and pass them along like a bucket brigade to their ...