History Main / DevolutionDevice

** In "[=UFoe=]" when Darkwing insults a highly advance alien race, they punish him by de-evolving him into a Neanderthal, then a fish and then a protozoa. Launchpad convinces them to change him back. This also settles the main villain of the episode's faith as [[spoiler:is turn into an alien fish at the end.]] The funniest part is how the ray affects a robot: it turns it into a toaster.

* Gorilla Grodd constructs one of these in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' as part of his master plan he's been working on for the first half of the final season. While he does temporarily turn most everyone into apes (including Luthor, who is not amused in the slightest), the Justice League destroy the device anyway. Grodd is then deposed by Luthor, who takes control of the Secret Society and [[DisappointedInTheMotive berates Grodd on how he used him and the rest of the Society for such a ridiculous plan]].

* In the ''WesternAnimation/LooneyTunes'' short "Mad as a Mars Hare", Marvin the Martian plans to use his evolution ray to advance WesternAnimation/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.

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

* Gorilla Grodd constructs one of these in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' as part of his master plan he's been working on for the first half of the final season. While he does temporarily turn most everyone into apes (including Luthor, who is not amused in the slightest), the Justice League destroy the device anyway. Grodd is then deposed by Luthor, who takes control of the Secret Society and berates Grodd on how he used him and the rest of the Society for such a ridiculous plan.

* A comic strip in the ''Series/RedDwarf Smegazine'' had an "evolution accelerator", which turned out to work backwards, turning Lister's bacon sandwich into a pig, [[VirtualGhost Rimmer]] into a silent movie, Lister into an ape, [[UpliftedAnimal the Cat]] into a cat, and [[RobotBuddy Kryten]] into a vacuum cleaner. Talkie Toaster managed to fix it, turning the Dwarfers back to normal, and the pig into an attractive [[PigMan pig woman]] (who was disgusted when the man who nearly ate her chatted her up, and put herself in [[HumanPopsicle stasis]] until the rest of pigkind reached her level).

->''DNA recombination destroys logical and emotional brain function, leading to complete regression to Neanderthal state.''

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

* An issue of ''[[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tigra Tigra]]'' [[note]](no, not [[WesternAnimation/{{ThunderCats|1985}} Tygra]])[[/note]] had a scientist of the Cat People developing a ray to turn the heroine back to her human form. An renegade CP got ahold of it and used it as a devolving ray. [[note]]Cat People usually devolved into big cats. When turned on the bad guy, he devolved in a ''house cat''.[[/note]]

* Gorilla Grodd constructs one of these in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' as part of his master plan he's been working on for the first half of the final season. While he does temporarily turn most everyone into apes (including Luthor, who is not amused in the slightest), the Justice League destroy the device anyway. Grodd is then deposed by Luthor, who takes control of the Secret Society and berates Grodd on how he used him and the rest of the Society for weeks for such a ridiculous plan.

* Gorilla Grodd constructs one of these in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' as part of his master plan he's been working on for much of the last season. While he does temporarily turn most everyone into apes (including Luthor, who is not amused in the slightest), the Justice League destroy the device anyway. Grodd is then deposed by Luthor, who is not impressed with how Grodd used him for weeks just to accomplish such a silly plan.

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', humans with Quirks are [[EvolutionaryLevels considered the next stage of evolution]]. Eri's Quirk is a SemanticSuperpower [[spoiler:revolving around the term "rewind"]], which the villain Overhaul exploits to create bullets that DePower those with Quirks, turning them into normal humans either temporarily or permanently.

* Gorilla Grodd constructs one of these in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' as part of his master plan he's been working on for much of the last season. While he does temporarily turn most everyone into apes (including Luthor, who is not amused in the slightest), the Justice League destroy the device anyway. [[spoiler: Grodd is then shortly disposed of by Luthor, who is not impressed with how Grodd used him for weeks just to accomplish such a plan]].

* In ''Manga/MyHeroAcademia'', humans with Quirks are [[EvolutionaryLevels considered the next stage of evolution]]. Eri's Quirk is a SemanticSuperpower [[spoiler:revolving around the term "rewind"]], which Chisaki exploits to create bullets that DePower those with Quirks, turning them into normal humans. He also suggests that she can turn a human into an apelike creature with some effort.

[[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mutant-chicken-grows-alli Note that]] in RealLife, a creature's cells do contain "dormant" genes from its ancestors. However, the DNA changes would have to occur in pretty much every cell in the body to change species, and it's quite likely that some of the other genes essential to a species' ancestor have been mutated or damaged beyond repair over thousands, or millions, of years. Even if genetic reversions did take place, the existing ''non-cellular'' components of a creature's body wouldn't be affected by alterations in DNA, so features like hair or skeletal framework ought to remain the same. (Moreover, the DNA is used to construct an organism from an embrio, so a changed DNA in an adult organism would have no genetic mechanisms to "re-construct" it, and it will likely just die in short order from metabolic imbalance.) Also note that this trope tends to result in the target turning into something that looks like a known extinct species, even though it's unlikely that most fossils represent actual ancestors of modern species (for example, modern birds are *not* directly descended from Archaeopteryx). To say nothing of how inaccurate it is to depict a modern species devolving into another modern species (such as a human into a chimpanzee).

[[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mutant-chicken-grows-alli Note that]] in RealLife, a creature's cells do contain "dormant" genes from its ancestors. However, the DNA changes would have to occur in pretty much every cell in the body to change species, and it's quite likely that some of the other genes essential to a species' ancestor have been mutated or damaged beyond repair over thousands, or millions, of years. Even if genetic reversions did take place, the existing ''non-cellular'' components of a creature's body wouldn't be affected by alterations in DNA, so features like hair or skeletal framework ought to remain the same. (Moreover, the DNA is used to construct an organism from an embrio, so a changed DNA in an adult organism would have no genetic mechanisms to "re-construct" it, and it will likely just die in short order from metabolic imbalance.) Also note that this trope tends to result in the target turning into something that looks like a extinct species, even though it's unlikely that most fossils represent actual ancestors of modern species (for example, modern birds are *not* directly descended from Archaeopteryx). To say nothing of how inaccurate it is to depict a modern species devolving into another modern species (such as a human into a chimpanzee).

* As explained in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frgtm4x2QFI&list=WL&index=8&t=0s this video]] from WebVideo/TREYTheExplainer, real life paleontologist Jack Horner is working on creating a "chickenosaurus" by reactivate all the dormant dinosaur genes. Of course the project in itself is controversial among the scientific community both because some are skeptical of if it can even work and other for ethical reasons.

[[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mutant-chicken-grows-alli Note that]] in RealLife, a creature's cells do contain "dormant" genes from its ancestors. However, the DNA changes would have to occur in pretty much every cell in the body to change species, and it's quite likely that some of the other genes essential to a species' ancestor have been mutated or damaged beyond repair over thousands, or millions, of years. Even if genetic reversions did take place, the existing ''non-cellular'' components of a creature's body wouldn't be affected by alterations in DNA, so features like hair or skeletal framework ought to remain the same. (Moreover, the DNA is used to construct an organism from an embrio, so a changed DNA in an adult organism would have no genetic mechanisms to "re-construct" it, and will likely just die in short order from metabolic imbalance.) Also note that this trope tends to result in the target turning into something that looks like a extinct species, even though it's unlikely that most fossils represent actual ancestors of modern species (for example, modern birds are *not* directly descended from Archaeopteryx). To say nothing of how inaccurate it is to depict a modern species devolving into another modern species (such as a human into a chimpanzee).

[[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mutant-chicken-grows-alli Note that]] in RealLife, a creature's cells do contain "dormant" genes from its ancestors. However, the DNA changes would have to occur in pretty much every cell in the body to change species, and it's quite likely that some of the other genes essential to a species' ancestor have been mutated or damaged beyond repair over thousands, or millions, of years. Even if genetic reversions did take place, the existing ''non-cellular'' components of a creature's body wouldn't be affected by alterations in DNA, so features like hair or skeletal framework ought to remain the same. (Moreover, the DNA is used to construct an organism from an embrio, so a changed DNA in an adult organism would have no genetic mechanisms to "re-construct" it, and it is likely to just die in short order from metabolic imbalance.) Also note that this trope tends to result in the target turning into something that looks like a extinct species, even though it's unlikely that most fossils represent actual ancestors of modern species (for example, modern birds are *not* directly descended from Archaeopteryx). To say nothing of how inaccurate it is to depict a modern species devolving into another modern species (such as a human into a chimpanzee).

* Gorilla Grodd constructs one of these in ''WesternAnimation/JusticeLeague'' as part of his master plan he's been working on for much of the last season. While he does temporarily turn most everyone into apes (including Luthor, who is not amused in the slightest), the Justice League destroy the device anyway. [[spoiler: Grodd is then shortly disposed of by Luthor, who is [[DissapointedByTheMotive not impressed with how Grodd used him for weeks just to accomplish such a plan]].

[[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mutant-chicken-grows-alli Note that]] in RealLife, a creature's cells do contain "dormant" genes from its ancestors. However, the DNA changes would have to occur on pretty much every cell in the body to change species, and it's quite likely that some of the other genes essential to a species' ancestor have been mutated or damaged beyond repair over thousands, or millions, of years. Even if genetic reversions did take place, the existing ''non-cellular'' components of a creature's body wouldn't be affected by alterations in DNA, so features like hair or skeletal framework ought to remain the same. (Moreover, the DNA is used to construct an organism from an embrio, so a changed DNA in an adult organism would have no genetic mechanisms to "re-construct" it, and it is likely to just die in short order from metabolic imbalance.) Also note that this trope tends to result in the target turning into something that looks like a extinct species, even though it's unlikely that most fossils represent actual ancestors of modern species (for example, modern birds are *not* directly descended from Archaeopteryx). To say nothing of how inaccurate it is to depict a modern species devolving into another modern species (such as a human into a chimpanzee).

* As explained in [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=frgtm4x2QFI&list=WL&index=8&t=0s this video]] from WebVideo/TREYTheExplainer, real life paleontologist Jack Horner is working on creating a "chickenosaurus" by reactivate all the dormant dinosaur genes. Of course the project in itself is controversial among the scientific community both because some are skeptical of if it may even work and other for ethical reasons.

[[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mutant-chicken-grows-alli Note that]] in RealLife, a creature's cells contain "dormant" genes from its ancestors. However, the DNA changes would have to occur on pretty much every cell in the body to change species, and it's quite likely that some of the other genes essential to a species' ancestor have been mutated or damaged beyond repair over thousands, or millions, of years. Even if genetic reversions did take place, the existing ''non-cellular'' components of a creature's body wouldn't be affected by alterations in DNA, so features like hair or skeletal framework ought to remain the same. (Moreover, the DNA is used to construct an organism from an embrio, so a changed DNA in an adult organism would have no genetic mechanisms to "re-construct" it, and it is likely to just die in short order from metabolic imbalance.) Also note that this trope tends to result in the target turning into something that looks like a extinct species, even though it's unlikely that most fossils represent actual ancestors of modern species (for example, modern birds are *not* directly descended from Archaeopteryx). To say nothing of how inaccurate it is to depict a modern species devolving into another modern species (such as a human into a chimpanzee).

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 [[ArtisticLicenseBiology 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.

[[http://www.scientificamerican.com/article.cfm?id=mutant-chicken-grows-alli Note that]] in RealLife, a creature's cells contain "dormant" genes from its ancestors. However, the DNA changes would have to occur on pretty much every cell in the body to change species, and it's quite likely that some of the other genes essential to a species' ancestor have been mutated or damaged beyond repair over thousands, or millions, of years. Even if genetic reversions did take place, the existing ''non-cellular'' components of a creature's body wouldn't be affected by alterations in DNA, so features like hair or skeletal framework ought to remain the same. (Moreover, the DNA is used to construct an organism from an embrio, so a changed DNA in an adult organism would have no genetic mechanisms to "re-construct" it, and the organism is likely to just die in short order from metabolic imbalance.) Also note that this trope tends to result in the target turning into something that looks like a extinct species, even though it's unlikely that most fossils represent actual ancestors of modern species (for example, modern birds are *not* directly descended from Archaeopteryx). To say nothing of how inaccurate it is to depict a modern species devolving into another modern species (such as a human into a chimpanzee).