A GUIDE FOR THE IDENTIFICATION OF SAINT KITTS BEACH SAND COMPONENTS

Saint Kitts is a small Caribbean island located within the Lesser Antilles. There is limited information, for a general audience, on the specific biological composition of Saint Kitts’ carbonate beaches. We created a guidebook to aid in the identification of an interesting array of biological grains within the beach sand. This guide covers a wide variety of constituents including: foraminifera, ostracods, gastropods, bivalves, sponge spicules, soft coral sclerites, and bryozoa fragments. We specifically designed the guidebook for a general audience by including photographs showing magnified images, annotated illustrations, and simplified descriptions for each constituent. We hope the guide will be useful for anyone interested in exploring the microscopic natural beauty of the Saint Kitts' beaches.