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Message text written by "johnruth.schwab"
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How do sand dollars reproduce.
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Sand dollars, like other echinoids (free-moving echinoderms which include
sea urchins, heart urchins and sand dollars), are dioecious. That means
that there are male and female reproductive organs on different
individuals. Sand dollars shed their sperm and eggs into the sea water
(some burrowing sand dollars have long genital papillae that allow the
release of eggs or sperm above the sand surface). Fertilization then takes
place in the water. At least one species of sand dollar actually broods the
eggs but most do not.
- Erich Hoyt
email: ehoyt@compuserve.com
Senior research associate, Whale and Dolphin Conservation Society
Co-director, Far East Russia Orca Project
Creatures of the Deep: In search of the sea's "monsters" and the world they
live in. by Erich Hoyt. Published Nov. 2001 by Firefly Books (Canada, USA;
distr. Chris Lloyd in UK). 160 pages, hardcover, 9 x 11 inches, all colour
with photographs throughout, world seafloor map, illus., bibliog., index.
$40 / £27.95.
Outstanding Book of the Year Award, April 2002 - American Society of
Journalists & Authors, Inc., New York
www.fireflybooks.com/Nature/HOYT.html
www.russianorca.narod.ru
www.wdcs.org
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