''Gaza superba'', common name the superb gaza, is a

species In biology, a species is the basic unit of classification and a taxonomic rank of an organism, as well as a unit of biodiversity. A species is often defined as the largest group of organisms in which any two individuals of the appropriate s ...

of deep sea

sea snail Sea snail is a common name for slow-moving marine gastropod molluscs, usually with visible external shells, such as whelk or abalone. They share the taxonomic class Gastropoda with slugs, which are distinguished from snails primarily by the ...

, a marine

gastropod The gastropods (), commonly known as snails and slugs, belong to a large taxonomic class of invertebrates within the phylum Mollusca called Gastropoda (). This class comprises snails and slugs from saltwater, from freshwater, and from land. T ...

mollusk Mollusca is the second-largest phylum of invertebrate animals after the Arthropoda, the members of which are known as molluscs or mollusks (). Around 85,000 extant species of molluscs are recognized. The number of fossil species is e ...

in the

family Family (from la, familia) is a Social group, group of people related either by consanguinity (by recognized birth) or Affinity (law), affinity (by marriage or other relationship). The purpose of the family is to maintain the well-being of its ...

Gazidae, the top snails.

Description

The shell is 2,5 to 4 cm. in width and present a somewhat elevated

spire A spire is a tall, slender, pointed structure on top of a roof of a building or tower, especially at the summit of church steeples. A spire may have a square, circular, or polygonal plan, with a roughly conical or pyramidal shape. Spires are ...

. The apex is open in adult stage. The umbilicus is about 75% covered by callus. The color of the shell is old ivory golden sheen. The early

whorl A whorl ( or ) is an individual circle, oval, volution or equivalent in a whorled pattern, which consists of a spiral or multiple concentric objects (including circles, ovals and arcs). Whorls in nature File:Photograph and axial plane floral ...

s are faintly wine colored. The operculum is circular and shows yellow to brown colorsQUINN, JAMES F. JR. 1979: Biological results of the University Deep Sea Expeditions130. The systematics and zoogeography of the gastropod Family Trochidae Collected in the straits of Florida and its approaches. Malacología 19(1): 1–62.SIMONE, L.R.L. & C.M. CUNHA. 2006: Revision of genera Gaza and Callogaza (Vetigastropoda, Trochidae), with description of a new Brazilian species. Zootaxa 1318: 1–40
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/ref> (Original description W.H. Dall) Shell in general features recalling ''

Gaza daedala ''Gaza daedala'' is a species of sea snail, a marine gastropod mollusk in the family Margaritidae.Rosenberg, G. (2012). ''Gaza daedala'' Watson, 1879. Accessed through: World Register of Marine Species at http://www.marinespecies.org/aphia.ph ...

'', much of whose description would apply with little change to this species. The eight whorls are in the adult roundly shouldered below the suture, rounded at the periphery, somewhat flattened on the base, and deeply and widely umbilicated. The umbilicus is a little more than half covered by a nacreous callus. The first 2½ whorls are transparent, not nacreous, very obtuse with the nucleus not prominent. The next 3½ whorls are smooth, except for faintest lines of growth, glassy with the nacre shining through. The remainder of the shell is covered with delicate and distinct lines of growth, sometimes a little more pronounced near the suture, and by revolving lines almost too shallow to be called grooves. These are most prominent on the periphery, evanescent on the flattened part of the base and above near the suture. On the

body whorl The body whorl is part of the morphology of the shell in those gastropod mollusks that possess a coiled shell. The term is also sometimes used in a similar way to describe the shell of a cephalopod mollusk. In gastropods In gastropods, the b ...

these are about 0.5 mm. apart. The region near the suture is almost smooth. The suture is very distinct, but not channelled. The umbilicus is bordered by an edge from which the flattened base falls away, and with straight walls forming an almost perfect cone. The body whorl is contracted just before the reflected

lip The lips are the visible body part at the mouth of many animals, including humans. Lips are soft, movable, and serve as the opening for food intake and in the articulation of sound and speech. Human lips are a tactile sensory organ, and can be ...

, which, above, rounds out in advance of its junction with the suture, the last 6.3 mm of which descends on the whorl, giving the

aperture In optics, an aperture is a hole or an opening through which light travels. More specifically, the aperture and focal length of an optical system determine the cone angle of a bundle of rays that come to a focus in the image plane. An opt ...

a downward look. The aperture is oblique above, arching more nearly to a perpendicular below. smoothly, evely reflected and thickened from the columella to the suture, with an internal channel behind the thickening. The columella is callous above, thinly and unevenly reflected half-way across the umbilicus, gently and very obliquely descending and smoothly passing into the basal part of the lip. The interior of the aperture, the lip, the umbilical callus, and a slight wash near the sutural junction, are brilliantly nacreous. The base and the body whorl within the aperture are not so. The upper surface of shell is distinctly tinted with fawn color, the base is waxen white, the nacre perceptible through the thinner portions.Dall, W. H. 1881. Reports on the results of dredging, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, in the Gulf of Mexico, and in the Caribbean Sea, 1877-79, by the United States Coast Survey Steamer 'Blake,'. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 9: 33-144
/ref>

Distribution

Caribbean and Gulf of Mexico.

Habitat

Muddy sand bottom; from 380 to 925 m depth, mostly around 600 m depth.

References

External links

Integrated Taxonimic Information System (ITIS): Gaza superba (Dall, 1881) Taxonomic Serial No.: 70015

Sea Life Base: ''Gaza superba'' (Dall, 1881)

ZipCodeZoo.com: ''Gaza superba''
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Gaza Superba superba Gastropods described in 1881