Serbian scientists name new species of beetle after Novak Djokovic – and the world waits
“All the best and most beautiful species have their roots in the seed of the original plant.”
These are the words of the great German biologist Ernst Mayr, and it is not difficult to understand why no one can find that seed in Novak Djokovic.
Mayr, a prolific researcher and pioneer of evolutionary biology, was one of just a handful of people who made it into the Hall of Fame of the National Academy of Sciences in Washington D.C.
His theory of a tree of biological species – the fundamental concept of evolutionary biology – is based on a simple hypothesis which holds that any given species will develop its characteristics from the characteristics of others within its lineage.
Djokovic is a member of a small group of professional tennis players known as the Serb nation who are now considered the world’s best. It is no wonder, then, that his name has been linked to this particular seed of evolutionary biology, one that makes it almost impossible to find: the seed of evolution itself in the biology of Novak Djokovic.
The seeds of the seed of evolution – the scientific term for the genetic material which a species has accumulated as it developed in the past, as the tree grows – can be found in Novak Djokovic.
It is not a matter of a single seed of Djokovic’s own DNA, taken from DNA taken from his father, or an individual copy of his own image taken from a photograph taken of Djokovic during his childhood.
No, Djokovic’s DNA seed is much more widespread than that.
This DNA seed was passed on by his great-great-grandfather, and it was then passed along by Djokovic’s immediate, and in many cases, more distant ancestors.
The seed’s existence has long been known by scientists, but it has taken Djokovic only a short time to plant it.
When it became clear in March this year that Djokovic was to make it to the final of the US Open, reports of the seeds started appearing on the web.
One such report appeared online from the evolutionary biologist and biologist Professor Thomas Huxley, who was