CRYPTOLINK: Meet the creature found by divers in Russia's Loch Ness, famed for legends of monsters

A word about cryptolinks: we are not responsible for the content of cryptolinks, which are merely links to outside articles that we think are interesting (sometimes for the wrong reasons), usually posted up without any comment whatsoever from me. 

Aware of accounts of mysterious relic reptiles lurking in the deep, here are the first pictures from a record breaking dive.

The water in Labynkyr was +1, +2C under the ice; air temperature was about minus 50C with occasional wind. Picture: Alexander Gubin

Reports of a 'Devil' in Siberia's Lake Labynkyr date from the 19th century, and have intrigued scientists for many decades. The inaccessible lake, in the Sakha Republic, Russia's largest and coldest region, was in March the scene of the deepest-ever dive under ice in the world. 

Divers on a joint expedition by the Russian Geographic Society and Diving Sport Federation of Russia reached a depth of 59.6 metres, but their achievement also had a serious scientific purpose. Braving air temperatures as low as minus 50C, and diving under tents erected on the ice, they took samples for examination by scientists which may prove a long-suspected underwater link between the Labynkyr and another similarly mysterious lake, Vorota, some 30km away. 

The divers were keenly aware of the age-old accounts of primeval monsters - perhaps relic ichthyosaurs - in both lakes. 

Read on...

PS My only comment is that the fish pictured appears to be a rather chunky burbot rather than a "dogfish"