Board Game Arena

Question regarding the universities that search for an animal type. I was playing irl today and placed a second one of these. My opponent said she thought that wasn't allowed, to which I replied that I'm pretty sure I've seen it on BGA. She then placed a second one herself a few turns later. I know the printed rulebook states that a player can't have more than one of these, but I'm certain that I have seen it on BGA. Am I crazy? My theory is that competitive player feedback has led to the rule being updated for online play, because I know a lot of cards and maps have been added for online play so it doesn't seem far-fetched to me that a minor rule has been quietly updated. My other theory is that I played against someone on BGA who had either a special online only card or perhaps one of the drafted action cards that allowed it.

No, it's not allowed.

There is one action card that break that rule though. But only one player can have it and he needs to have it upgraded. (Association I allow you have the same partner zoo several times)

As Azoken said, marine worlds has a special action card, association I, which when upgraded allows you to take universities from the supply. So you must've played someone with that upgraded action card. Further clarification, if you take a duplicate hand size uni, it doesn't increase your hand size to 10. Hand size is limited to 5 (or 6 if you have the hand size bonus token). The only exception the BGA version has over the table version is mirrored maps, as far as as I know.

There is a special Association action card that, when upgraded, lets you:
1. Take universities and partner zoos from supply (meaning they don't need to be available on the board this round);
2. Take duplicates of the same uni/PZ.
However, note that there is only 1 of each specie university in the supply. This applies regardless of online or IRL. So you can take multiple specie universities, but not on the same specie. e.g. You can take 1 bird uni + 1 primate uni, but not 2 bird unis.