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Life-forms

Superregnum: Eukaryota
Cladus: Unikonta
Cladus: Opisthokonta
Cladus: Holozoa
Regnum: Animalia
Subregnum: Eumetazoa
Cladus: Bilateria
Cladus: Nephrozoa
Cladus: Protostomia
Cladus: Spiralia
Cladus: Lophotrochozoa
Phylum: Mollusca
Classis: Gastropoda
Subclassis: Vetigastropoda
Ordo: Trochida
Superfamilia: Trochoidea

Familia: Margaritidae
Genus: Gaza
Species (8): G. compta – G. cubana – G. daedala – G. fischeri – G. olivacea – G. polychoronos – G. rathbuni – G. superba

[source: WoRMS]
Name

Gaza Watson, 1879: 601

Type Species: Gaza daedala Watson, 1879
Fixation: original designation [see p. 602 [and monotypy]

References
Primary references

Watson, R.B. 1879. Mollusca of H.M.S. ‘Challenger’ Expedition: III Trochidae, viz. the genera Seguenzia, Basilissa, Gaza and Bembix. Journal of the Linnean Society of London, Zoology 14(78): 586–605. DOI: 10.1111/j.1096-3642.1879.tb02453.x. BHL Reference page.

Additional references

Abbott, R.T. 1974: American seashells, second edition, Van Nostrand Reinhold Company, New York, 663 pp + 24 pls.
Clench, W.J. & Abbott, R.T. 1943: The genera Gaza and Livona in the Western Atlantic. Johnsonia 12: 1–12.
Dall, W.H. 1889: Reports on the results of dredgings, under the supervision of Alexander Agassiz, in the Gulf of Mexico (1877–78) and in the Caribbean Sea (1879–80), by the U. S. Coast Survey Steamer 'Blake,'. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 18: 1–492, pls. 10–40.
Dall, W.H. 1908. Reports on the dredging operations off the west coast of Central America to the Galapagos, to the west coast of Mexico, and in the Gulf of California, in charge of Alexander Agassiz, carried on by the U.S. Fish Commission steamer "Albatross," during 1891, Lieut.-Commander Z.L. Tanner, U.S.N., commanding. XXXVII. Reports on the scientific results of the expedition to the eastern tropical Pacific, in charge of Alexander Agassiz, by the U.S. Fish Commission steamer "Albatross", from October, 1904 to March, 1905, Lieut.-Commander L.M. Garrett, U.S.N., commanding. XIV. The Mollusca and Brachiopoda. Bulletin of the Museum of Comparative Zoology 43(6): 205–487, pls 1–22. BHL Reference page.
Hickman, C.S. & McLean, J.H. 1990: Systematic revision and suprageneric classification of trochacean gastropods. Natural History Museum of Los Angeles County, Science Series 35: i–vi, 1–169.
Quinn, James F. Jr. 1991: New species of Gaza, Mirachelus, Calliotropis, and Echinogurges (Gastropoda:Trochidae) from the northwestern Atlantic Ocean. Nautilus 105: 166–172.
Simone, L.R.L.; Cunha, C.M. 2006: Revision of genera Gaza and Callogaza (Vetigastropoda, Trochidae), with description of a new Brazilian species. Zootaxa, 1318: 1–40. Abstract & excerpt
Thiele, J. 1929–1935: Handbuch der systematischen Weichtierkunde, Translation by Bieler, R & Mikkelsen, P. 1992, Smithsonian Institution Libraries, The National Science Foundation, Washington D.C., 625 pp.
Wenz, W. 1938: Gastropoda. Handbuch der Paläozoologie, Berlin, 6, 1–1639.

Links

Gaza in the World Register of Marine Species

Gaza is a genus of sea snails, marine gastropod mollusks in the family Margaritidae.[2]
Description

An examination of the soft parts of a species of the genus Gaza, by Dall[3] showed the operculum to be very thin, light brown, and with about seven whorls.

The animal was of a whitish color without any spots or markings, and with very large black eyes set on a good-sized peduncle closely adjacent to and behind the tentacles. There is a single narrow gill in the usual position. The tentacles are long, large, and rather slender. The foot is short, broad, and bluntly rounded in front, behind almost truncate. In fact the contracted specimen looked almost as if there was a broad posterior indentation in the middle line. The muzzle is long, narrow, subcylindrical above and transversely expanded at its distal end, which is semi-lunar with a densely papillose surface and fringed edges. This expansion is nearly three times as wide as the stem of the muzzle. The epipodium (the lateral grooves between foot and mantle) has a large lobe behind the eye peduncle but is not connected with it. Behind the lobe is one long process and then a shorter one. The frill behind is merely puckered, but from under the borders of the operculum on each side protrude three good-sized processes. Behind the opercular lobe the epipodium terminates in a prominent point, concave and papillose on its upper surface. There are no frontal lobes between the tentacula. The epipodial point extends some distance behind the posterior end of the foot. The jaw is like that of Calliostoma in shape. It is composed of brown four-sided translucent prismatic rodlets which give under the microscope a reticular marking of diamond-shaped spots to the surface of the jaw. The two sides are not united in the middle line. The radula closely resembles that of Lunella versicolor Gmelin as figured by Troschel (Geb. der Schnecken, ii, pi. 20, fig. 7), except that the bases of the rhachidian and lateral teeth are subcircular, and on a few of the scythe-shaped cusps of the numerous uncini (= the small teeth-like or hook-like structures on the radula) are a few denticles. There are five lateral teeth, and between twenty and thirty uncini. (Dall).

The nucleus of Gaza superba is often caducous, and in such specimens the apex is pierced with a circular perforation 1½ mm in diameter, which is continuous with the umbilicus. There does not appear to be any particular difference between the nucleus and the early whorls, its loss would therefore seem to be due merely to its fragility. In none of those in which it remains is there any indication of its being reinforced by a shelly deposit. (Dall)

The species are all deep-sea dwellers, living mostly at depths of 180 m or greater [4]
Species

Species within the genus Gaza include:

Gaza compta Simone & Cunha, 2006[5]
Gaza cubana Clench & Aguayo, 1940[6]
Gaza daedala Watson, 1879
Gaza fischeri Dall, 1889[7]
Gaza olivacea Quinn, 1991
Gaza polychoronos Vilvens, 2012
Gaza rathbuni Dall, 1890
Gaza superba (Dall, 1881)[8]

Synonyms:

Gaza frederici E. A. Smith, 1906: synonym of Callogaza frederici (E. A. Smith, 1906)
Gaza sericata Kira, 1959: synonym of Callogaza sericata (Kira, 1959)
Gaza watsoni (Dall, 1881): synonym of Callogaza watsoni Dall, 1881

References
Wikimedia Commons has media related to Gaza (gastropod).

Watson R. B. (1879) "Mollusca of the H.M.S. 'Challenger' expedition". Zoological Journal of the Linnean Society 14: 586-605. page 601.
Gaza. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 11 August 2012.
Dall, Rep. on 'Blake ' Gasteropoda, p. 354.
Tryon (1889), Manual of Conchology XI, Academy of Natural Sciences, Philadelphia
Gaza compta Simone & Cunha, 2006. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 1 May 2010.
Gaza cubana Clench & Aguayo, 1940. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 1 May 2010.
Gaza fischeri Dall, 1889. Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 1 May 2010.

Gaza superba (Dall, 1881). Retrieved through: World Register of Marine Species on 1 May 2010.

Luiz Ricardo L. Simone & Carlo M. Cunha, Revision of genera Gaza and Callogaza (Vetigastropoda, Trochidae), with description of a new Brazilian species; Zootaxa1318: 1–40 (2006)

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