Mario Vallejo-Marin
@nicrodemo
Evolutionary biologist interested in plant evolution, speciation, and pollination including buzz pollination Website:
Did you know that bee buzzes on flowers are rich in harmonics? We investigated how harmonics, which give musical instruments their unique sounds, affect buzz pollination. Very happy to see this paper published @jexpbiol.bsky.social Thanks @hfspo.bsky.social for the support! doi.org/10.1242/jeb....
Looking forward to the Botany 2026 conference. So far, Arizona has had many botanical delights to discover!
Very happy to see this study out! The transition from outcrossing to selfing involve convergent patterns of flower trait covariation academic.oup.com/aob/article/...
The first time I see the pretty Andromeda polifolia. A plant from boggy, montane areas in the north
Proud supervisor @bobmuscarella.bsky.social and his first PhD student Laura Moro after the defence! Congrats to both of you!
A grass snake with a big meal in its belly showed up today in our walk in the Fyris river in Uppsala!
Bees spend a lot of energy while buzz-pollinating flowers. We used respirometry, lasers, and bees in 3D chambers to figure just how energetically expensive it is. Thanks @bethbees.bsky.social and @natacharossi.bsky.social for this fun collaboration! royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
How do non-native monkeyflowers adapt to new pollinators? Check out our new paper on selection and differentiation in Mimulus. Led by Violeta Simon-Porcar using a reciprocal transplant in Shetland and Isle of Wight, in the British Isles. royalsocietypublishing.org/rspb/article...
What a surprise to see a new species of Amorphophallus in bloom! I bet my colleagues at the Evolutionary Biology Centre were also a bit surprised by its rotting smell when they walked into the building! It is quite a stinker!
Alessandro Nobile tells us about his dissertation work on using multispectral drone images to characterise vegetation in Swedish forests during the Plant Club at the Evolutionary Biology Centre, Uppsala University
The new bee documentary is out today in Disney+. Our buzzing bees did make the cut at the end! It is really nice to see the clip of how bees use previously collected nectar to pack pollen even in nectarless flowers! There are lots of other cool things in this two-part film!
The Vallejo-Marin Lab in March 2026! Top row: Anna, Baptiste, Juan, Alexie, Andrei. Bottom row: Ivan (Ågren Lab), Mylena, Thaina, Lilian, Mario.
I really enjoyed the student talks we had at the 4th Biology PhD Symposium at Uppsala University! This year we also did a tour at the Gustavianum museum. What a wonderful place!
Not a bad day for being out. This is Hammarskog natural reserve. You can ski here from Uppsala. Haven’t tried to do that yet though!
Join us at the Evolutionary Biology Centre at Uppsala University. We’re searching for an Assistant Professor in Biology. www.uu.se/en/about-uu/...
Great talk by @pyhatanja.bsky.social at Uppsala today! Very cool to learn about how polyembriony might allow gymnosperms to selectively support the best offspring.
We are looking for a very short (6 mo) researcher post for helping us to do experiments with bees, flowers and tiny robots,! The post would be suitable for a recently graduated PhD student or someone between jobs. The post will be announced formally in the new year. Informal queries welcome by email
Odin the one-eyed god looks on at Gamla Uppsala. He gave one of his eyes in exchange for knowledge
Do you want to do a Masters in Evolutionary Biology? The call for applying to the MEME program is now open! MEME is a fantastic 2-year MSc between four European Universities on all areas of Evolutionary Biology. Apply and study in Sweden/France/the Netherlands/Germany/USA/Switzerland! www.evobio.eu
How many plant species are buzz pollinated? After more than six years in the making, our paper on the convergent evolution of buzz pollinated flowers is out in @journal-evo.bsky.social. Thanks @draverbee.bsky.social @roszenil.bsky.social and all co-authors for your hard work! doi.org/10.1093/evol...
Lisette van Kolfschoten defending her PhD thesis today at Uppsala University. The opponent Judith Bronstein nicely placed her work in a broader context and held an insightful discussion with Lisette
Where does pollen go after leaving a flower? Our paper on pollen fates in buzz pollinated flowers is out. Congrats to the three brilliant undergrads that carried out this study from beginning to end! pollinationecology.org/index.php/jp...
Thanks Maja and the UppTalk team from Uppsala University for inviting me to participate in Kulturnatten! It was nice to be part of the celebration at Linnaeus gardens!
Very nice talk by @hernmoral.bsky.social on his work using museum and contemporary sample genomics to study small populations of endangered birds
Michael Lynch kicks off #ESEB2025 proposing a parasitic origin for ribosomes