The phrase "are predated" is correct and usable in written English.
It can be used when discussing events, objects, or concepts that existed before a certain point in time or before something else.
Example: "The fossils found in this region are predated by the volcanic activity that occurred millions of years ago."
Alternatives: "are preceded" or "exist prior to".
Scarlet Macaw chicks are predated in Guatemala by Collared Forest-Falcon (Micrastur semitorquatus) (Wildife Conservation Society Macaw Project Rony Garcia pers. comm.).
These sources are predated by a late-18th-century best seller, "Memoirs Illustrating the History of Jacobinism," by the French cleric Augustin Barruel, who charged that behind the French Revolution lurked a conspiracy of Freemasons.
The hypothesis that crayfish and benthic fish compete for shelter and the fish are predated by crayfish was tested in a flume containing artificial shelters.
The nests are predated by other bird species, specifically Micronesian starlings and collared kingfishers.
Both nests and (less frequently) adults are predated by larger-bodied raptorial birds like eagles, large owls, or gyrfalcons.
City officials argue that they are immune from those laws because they are predated by the 70-year-old transfer.
The pest population dies at a rate ax and is predated by the predator population at a rate (pxy).
These mechanisms, if present, limit the inference that prey are effectively avoiding being predated by just avoiding predators.
Predator avoidance is also unlikely, given that blue sharks are apex predators and thus unlikely to be predated upon.
The only exception was one trail ant that was predated upon by a spider (none of the behaviorally manipulated ants we observed were predated upon).
These observations indicate that both species have been predated by the same phage and have survived that predation in these two different ways.
