Element Actions
Dominant Species: Marine actions that move elements — the action display, Abundance, Autotrophs, Depletion, Regression and Adaptation.
The action display
The action display has twelve sections, top to bottom, plus Retrieve. Each 
fossil is
one action space; a fossil with a white cylinder (
) takes only a special pawn.
Elements wait in 
jellyfish circles and terrain markers in 
starfish
squares; both are refreshed at each Reseed.
| Section | Spaces | What it does |
|---|---|---|
| Abundance | 3 | Put a display element on earth |
| Autotrophs | 2 (smoker, geyser) | Remove or swap an element on a Vent |
| Depletion | 1 | Remove an element from earth |
| Adaptation | 2 + 1 special | Add an element to your animal |
| Regression | 2 | Protect your elements at the Reseed |
| Speciation | 4 + 1 special | Add species around an element |
| Wanderlust | 2 + 1 special | Add a tile to earth |
| Tectonics | 1 + 1 special | Turn a tile into a Vent |
| Migration | 3 + 1 special | Move species |
| Competition | 3 + 1 special | Eliminate opposing species |
| Evolution | 5 | Score a tile and take a card |
| Domination | 1 / 2 / 3 by player count | Claim a special pawn |
Elements flow down the display at each Reseed: Abundance → Autotrophs Box → Depletion Box, and Adaptation → Regression Box.
Abundance
Choose one of the elements beside Abundance and put it on any vacant corner of any tile — even a corner on the outside edge of earth that touches one tile or none.
Autotrophs
Do one of these on a Vent of the type shown beside your space (left space: smoker Vent; right: geyser Vent):
- Remove one element from that Vent whose type is in the Autotrophs Box, or
- Swap one element in the Autotrophs Box with one element on that Vent.
The Autotrophs Box is empty until the first Reseed, so the action does nothing before then.
Depletion
Remove one element anywhere on earth whose type is in the Depletion Box and put it in the bag. If no element on earth matches, nothing happens. The box is empty until the second Reseed.
Regression
Put one cube from your Gene Pool in a vacant square beside Regression. Nothing else happens now. With an empty Gene Pool the action is forfeit.
At each Reseed: for each element type in the Regression Box, every animal without a cube in Regression removes one disk of that type from its display. Then the cubes go back to their Gene Pools.
- Printed elements are never removed; an animal with only printed elements is safe.
- You may hold both squares: the second cube only stops rivals from using it.
- Resilience trait: saves one element of your choice (Trait cards).
Adaptation
Take one element beside Adaptation and put it on an empty grey space of your display.
- Never more than six elements on a display, printed ones included; with no grey space free the action is forfeit.
- You may hold several disks of one type.
- Special space (right): you may instead replace one of your added disks with the new one; the old disk goes back to the bag. Printed elements can’t be replaced.