The central story of Primeval revolves around time portals (called "anomalies") opening up and letting through various prehistoric creatures into the present.

The description Horley received to work with was that the future predator was to be a sinister-looking (but not too fanciful) quadrupedal creature which could also rear up on two legs.

[3] Though they were maintained to have been bat descendants throughout Primeval, the design of the future predators, particularly their body plan also strongly evokes primates.

This time, future predators have been captured by Helen Cutter (Juliet Aubrey) and brought to the present, where Oliver Leek (Karl Theobald) uses neural clamps to control them.

Episode eight saw main characters Danny Quinn (Jason Flemyng), Captain Becker (Ben Mansfield), Connor Temple (Andrew-Lee Potts) and Abby Maitland (Hannah Spearritt) step through an anomaly into the future, where they encounter numerous future predators in the ruins of a city.

[5][7][8] The storyline accompanying the creature's first appearance was also strikingly different, exploring temporal paradoxes and the impact changing the past could have on the present.

[10] Some commentators have referred to the future predators, on account of their repeated appearances in the series and how difficult they are to deal with, as the Daleks of Primeval.

[1] The palaeontologist Darren Naish praised the design of the future predator in a 2012 article for successfully incorporating numerous bat-like qualities despite its weird appearance, size and lack of flight, such as how the creature runs in a similar way to a vampire bat.