What other ways (besides the ones humans used) could a specific species become dominant on a planet?

In My Humble Opinion
21

I guess that’s true of locust as well! The same larva becomes a swarming locust or a normal grasshopper.

22

I think my example of “super-lignin” is quite analogous to your example

23

I question the entire premise. Fermi was wrong. There is no reason ever expect any species to leave its home system.

24
  1. This thread doesn’t mention leaving the home system
  2. That doesn’t make Fermi wrong. If there is no reason to expect any species to leave its home species, but there is also no reason not to expect that all species stay home, then Fermi’s paradox is still unexplained, you just added an extra filter that undoubtedly still isn’t a GREAT Filter.
25

Not directly (again, I have not been perfectly clear) but as a thought experiment triggered by the idea of Fermi’s Paradox, I am looking for plausible dominant species that would be uninterested in space travel. I have assumed that any species that succeeded in interplanetary travel would then be trying for FTL interstellar travel of some kind, and if it’s possible would eventually succeed. And if there were enough of those, over time at least one would eventually find us.

I guess if FTL interstellar travel is flat out impossible, that would be a different answer to Fermi’s paradox.