he embraced most of Darwin's ideas claiming "I renounced my views which contradicted Darwin's theory, and I consider that the changes of the embryo arise not by means of external action of certain molecules but by the influence of selection and heredity." Legacy Keyserling is commemorated in the scientific name of a species of gecko, Teratoscincus keyserlingii. See also List of Baltic German scientists References Sources (de) 1815 births 1891 deaths People from Kuldīga Municipality People from Courland Governorate Baltic German people from the Russian Empire Paleontologists from the Russian Empire Geologists from the Russian Empire 19th-century botanists from the Russian Empire Zoologists from the Russian Empire Explorers from the Russian Empire German arachnologists Demidov Prize laureates Corresponding members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Honorary members of the Saint Petersburg Academy of Sciences Proto-evolutionary biologists 19th-century German zoologists