Kessler's sculpin (Leocottus kesslerii) is a species of Baikal sculpin, a freshwater fish native to Russia and Mongolia where it occurs in Lake Baikal and surrounding lakes as well as the Selenga, Angara and Bain Gol rivers.

[2] In Lake Baikal it occurs on sandy, rocky-sandy or sandy-muddy bottoms, ranging from relatively shallow water to depths of 70 m (230 ft).

[3] The Kessler's sculpin is sometimes caught by commercial fishers,[3] and it is eaten by the Baikal seal, comprising about 0.3% of its diet in the winter and spring, and significantly more in the autumn.

[4] Kessler’s sculpin was first formally described as Cottus kessleri in 1874 by the Polish zoologist Benedykt Dybowski with its type locality given as Lake Baikal and the Angara, Irkut and Selenga rivers in Siberia.

[5] In 1955 the name Leocottus was posthumously published by Dmitrii Nikolaevich Taliev, as a subgenus of Paracottus, but he did not designate a type species so the name was unavailable under the ICZN.