History Main / DevolutionDevice

* Dr. Fossil, one VillainOfTheWeek from ''WesternAnimation/DarkwingDuck'' uses these to turn anthropomorphic ducks (including himself) into prehistoric animals - himself into a pterosaur, his minion Stegmutt into a Stegosaurus, and Darkwing into a Film/{{Godzilla}}-like giant theropod.

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* ''Film/SuperMarioBros'': King Koopa has one of these, he uses it to make the closest thing to a Goomba in the film. The most extreme use of it comes when it's used to [[spoiler:de-evolve Koopa, turning him first into a T-Rex and then eventually sludge]].

* Jessup from ''Film/AlteredStates'' achieved this effect [[ProfessorGuineaPig on himself]], using a combination of weird South American hallucinogenic herbage and a sensory-deprivation tank.

* ''WesternAnimation/MightyMax'' used this. In one episode, a mad scientist named Dr. Zygote develops a ray that devolves anything to their prehistoric state. A bunch of human tourists become apes, Max's pet lizard becomes a dinosaur, and Virgil (a lemurian who is supposed to be the next step in human evolution) gets turned into a pterodactyl (?!) Later it's used by Dr. Zygote to turn a bunch of devolved mutated monsters into primordial ooze. He surmises that the ray "reversed their evolutionary path to the final quagmire, an evolutionary dead-end"--which really makes no sense at all. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=owZqBj0vLXU&feature=related

* The two-part ''EvilConCarne'' episode"Devolution", where Ghastly accidentally hits Skarr with a devolution ray, causing him to turn into a giant ape.

* ''WereBackADinosaursStory'': [[BigBad Professor Screweyes]] has evil pills called Brain Drain, the opposite of his brother's Brain Grain that grants sapience, which he uses to turn the kids into monkeys and the newly intelligent dinos back to their animal states.

* One episode of ''WesternAnimation/{{Kablam!}}'' had a Prometheus and Bob short in which Prometheus attempts to teach Bob how to operate an evolution machine. Among other shenanigans, a puppy is de-evolved into a wolf and Prometheus himself is de-evolved into a purple version of Bob. Given that it also evolves a club into an aluminum bat, RuleOfFunny is clearly in play.

** In one of Disney Ducks comics, Gyro develops an "evolutionary ray". After a Beagle Boy gets accidentally hit in the head, he uses his newly heightened intelligence to develop a flawless bank robbery plan. Amazed with the results, the other Boys decide to give him a second and [[TheRuleOfThree third dose...]] only then to discover that he had reached the CrystalSpiresAndTogas level of intellectual development, gave all their money to charity, and went on to the UN to give a lecture on the elimination of crime and poverty. They manage to reverse the effect, [[FrazettaMan but the switch gets stuck]].

!!Examples

* In one of [[DisneyDucksComicUniverse Disney Ducks]] comics, Gyro develops an "evolutionary ray". After a Beagle Boy gets accidentally hit in the head, he uses his newly heightened intelligence to develop a flawless bank robbery plan. Amazed with the results, the other Boys decide to give him a second and [[TheRuleOfThree third dose...]] only then to discover that he had reached the CrystalSpiresAndTogas level of intellectual development, gave all their money to charity, and went on to the UN to give a lecture on the elimination of crime and poverty. They manage to reverse the effect, [[FrazettaMan but the switch gets stuck]].

* In ''VideoGame/MetalSlug 4'', the scientist enemies fire chemical darts that turn the player into a monkey if they hit.

* Many superhero RolePlayingGames — like ''MutantsAndMasterminds'' and the original ''[[MarvelUniverse Marvel Superheroes Role-Playing Game]]'' — include, among the list of powers available to players, some sort of "Hyper-Evolution" power that lets a hero shift up and down along their "evolutionary path," generally affording them the ability to "devolve" into cave-man form (temporarily lower their intelligence to raise their strength).
** In Mayfair Games' ''TabletopGame/DCHeroes'' RPG this was covered by the Mutation power.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Mad as a Mars Hare", Marvin the Martian plans to use his evolution ray to advance BugsBunny into a "harmless but useful slave to me". Only he had it set to reverse, turning Bugs into a huge Neanderthal rabbit who easily pummels Marvin.

* ''ThirdRockFromTheSun'': "Liam Neesan" (a character, not the actor or even played by [[Creator/LiamNeeson the actor]]) had a ray gun that turned people into monkeys. He planned to use it on the human race, but Dick Solomon stopped him by turning [[HoistByHisOwnPetard him]] into a monkey.
* ''[[TheOuterLimits The New Outer Limits]]'': Serum form, a meek bio-anthropologist developed it and used it on himself, turning him into an aggressive quasi-caveman.

* In one episode of CowboyBebop, a bioterrorist organization holds an entire planet ransom under threat of a de-evolutionary retrovirus that turns humans into apes, unless they agreed to stop harvesting the Ganymede Sea-Rat.

* There was a devo ray used in a ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' story in the 80s: most of the ones hit with it turned into apes but Starfire devolved into something more feline looking.
* Right around the same time as the aforemented Titans story, ''Marvel Fanfare'' #4 had the Franchise/XMen subjected to a similar treatment; in this case Nightcrawler was the one who became something different from the usual ape.

* Right around the same time, ''Marvel Fanfare'' #4 had the Franchise/XMen subjected to a similar treatment; in this case Nightcrawler was the one who became something different from the usual ape.

* This once happened to the Comicbook/TeenTitans. Notably, alien Starfire devolved into a CatGirl rather than an ape.

* There was a devo ray used in an ''ComicBook/TeenTitans'' story in the 80s: most of the ones hit with it turned into apes but Starfire devolved into something more feline looking.

* There was a devo ray used in an ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' story in the 80s: most of the ones hit with it turned into apes but Nightcrawler devolved into something more feline looking.

* There is also a short story by PhilipKDick, called ''Strange Eden'', that successfully makes every mistake about evolution mentioned here. It's about an astronaut that finds an attractive and immortal female Goddess-like alien on a far-away world. Immediately he wants to sleep with her, but she warns him that in doing so he will magically begin to rapidly evolve. Thinking that this will lead him to become a superior being like her (and for the obvious reason), the astronaut accepts the offer. However, it turns out that humanity's set evolutionary path is that we will evolve into bestial cat-creatures — exactly why is never stated — and so the astronaut is stuck as the alien woman's pet forever.

* ''Franchise/{{Bionicle}}'''s Kanohi Ignika, the Legendary [[MaskOfPower Mask of Life]]. Having been sentient, it was able to do this to others by itself, without a user.

%%* There was a devo ray used in an ''ComicBook/{{X-Men}}'' story in the 80s: most of the ones hit with it turned into apes but Nightcrawler devolved into something more feline looking.

A fine weapon and/or [[AppliedPhlebotinum experimental prototype]] that does one thing and one thing only, reverse [[EvolutionaryLevels the effects of evolution]] on creatures! In particular, this device is often used to turn humans into something more apelike, often a [[YouFailBiologyForever modern]] Gorilla, or else AllCavemenWereNeanderthals. A bird or lizard can be turned into a giant dinosaur that can then be used to [[TheyCalledMeMad terrorize all those people that called you mad]]. That'll show 'em.

* In the ''WesternAnimation/Ben10UltimateAlien'' "The Eggman Cometh", Doctor Animo uses a ray to transform chicken eggs intro dinosaur eggs. [[ReversePolarity Reversing the polarity of the ray]] turns the dinosaurs into chickens.

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