---
title: "Five-slotted Sand Dollar"
description: "Mellita quinquiesperforata — Andere dieren. Mellita quinquiesperforata is a tropical species of sand dollar, a flat, round marine animal related to sea urchins, starfish, and other echinoderms."
canonical: https://animalchecklist.com/nl/animal/five-slotted-sand-dollar
last_updated: 2026-09-20
---

# Five-slotted Sand Dollar

> Mellita quinquiesperforata — Andere dieren. Mellita quinquiesperforata is a tropical species of sand dollar, a flat, round marine animal related to sea urchins, starfish, and other echinoderms.

- Scientific name: *Mellita quinquiesperforata*
- Category: `other` (Andere dieren)
- Habitats: `sea` (Zee en kust)
- iNaturalist observations: 3559
- Wikidata: [Q2652400](https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q2652400)
- iNaturalist taxon: [118583](https://www.inaturalist.org/taxa/118583)

## Names

- en: Five-slotted Sand Dollar
- es: Dólar de arena de cinco agujeros

## Countries with the most observations

US (933), BR (688), MX (285), CR (46), PR (39), CO (33), TT (14), PA (10), EC (9), VE (4)

## Summary

Mellita quinquiesperforata is a tropical species of sand dollar, a flat, round marine animal related to sea urchins, starfish, and other echinoderms. They have been found to possess significantly more food in the gut at night than in the day. This species can be found along the eastern coast of the United States and the coast of Brazil. Inverted sand dollars are able to recognize flow direction and respond by modifying their orientation to maximize lift and drag for righting their position.

Text: Wikipedia (en), CC BY-SA 4.0 — https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mellita_quinquiesperforata

## Photo

![Five-slotted Sand Dollar](https://animalchecklist.com/img/animals/five-slotted-sand-dollar/medium.jpg)

Photo: Andrew J. Crawford · CC0 · inaturalist — https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/35788635

## Machine access

`GET https://animalchecklist.com/api/v1/animals/five-slotted-sand-dollar?lang=nl` — see [openapi.json](https://animalchecklist.com/openapi.json).