inspired his theory of symbiogenesis. Mereschkowski rejected Darwinian evolution, believing that natural selection could not explain biological novelty. He argued instead that the acquisition and inheritance of microbes was central. He was criticised and even ridiculed by other biologists, such as the Polish lichenologist Alexandr Alexandrovich Elenkin. Eponyms Species named after Mereschkowski include Plowrightia mereschkowskyi , Physcia mereschkowskii , and Caloplaca mereschkowskiana . Notes References 1855 births 1921 suicides 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire 20th-century Russian botanists Evolutionary biologists Russian lichenologists Russian phycologists Russian mycologists Botanists with author abbreviations Saint Petersburg State University alumni Symbiogenesis researchers