THE FICTION
Future Predators made their first appearance in episode 6 of series 1. The creatures have no names because they come from the future, following the logic that if holes can open to the past, so holes in the future can open up. The animal that came through was, unfortunately, a predator that was drawn through while hunting Helen Cutter. Genetic tests revealed it was a type of wingless bat with lightning-fast reactions and the ability to stalk its prey using high-frequency sonar. Cutter managed to kill the predator, when it cornered him in a greenhouse, by confusing its sonar with smashed glass. However, it turned out there was a mated pair and he was saved from the jaws of the female by the prehistoric gorgonopsid from programme one that killed her and her young in the climax to the series.

THE FACTS
This creature is obviously not based on any real animal but it is assumed that, as long as the Earth’s climate remains as seasonal as it is, mammals will continue to be the dominant group of animals. If that is so, rats and bats are by far the most common groups of mammals (accounting for three quarters of all mammal species) and any large predator could well evolve from them.