Lac Télé structure, Republic of Congo: Geological setting of a cryptozoological and biodiversity hotspot, and evidence against an impact origin

► Lac Télé in the Congo Basin rain forest region is a hotbed of conservation ecology and biodiversity. ► Modelling shows it could not have originated from a bolide impact. ► It is not a unique structure- there are similar lakes in the Congo Basin. ► The lakes may have formed through damming produced by neotectonic acitivity. ► The lakes acted as refugia following hydrological reorganization of the Congo Basin.