n.祖先；前任；原有事物

The Yunxian Man fossil skull is believed by scientists to belong to homo erectus, a predecessor of homo sapiens that walked on their two legs with an upright body posture. 科學(xué)家們認(rèn)為袁縣人屬于直立人，是靠兩條腿直立行走的智力人的祖先。

Recently unearthed fossils trace whales to a doglike predecessor of hoofed plant-eaters, and genetic analysis has identified hippos as whales' closest living relatives. 最近出土的化石使鯨的祖先可追溯到一種有蹄外形像狗的植食動物，而且基因分析證實了現(xiàn)存動物中河馬是鯨的近親。

He undid most of the good work of his predecessor. 他把前任的大部分業(yè)績毀掉了。

Our new doctor is much younger than his predecessor. 我們新來的醫(yī)生比他的前任年輕許多。

My prest car is much better than its predecessor . 我現(xiàn)在的汽車比原來的那輛好得多。