The phrase "exist prior to" is grammatically correct and can be used in written English.
It means that something existed before something else. Example: The dinosaurs existed prior to the evolution of mammals.
Unfortunately, they don't exist prior to 1994.
The pieces exist prior to and independently of their assembly.
Thus, the protosignals exist prior to receivers' noticing them.
But an adversary relationship may very well exist prior to the commencement of formal proceedings.
The would-be capital is often talked about as though it didn't exist prior to the 2005 peace deal.
Did kinship define gender relations, did gender exist prior to kinship, or were these domains "mutually constituted"?
The given name Lorna reputedly did not exist prior to the publication of the 1869 novel Lorna Doone, by RD Blackmore.
They conjoin diverse cultural horizons and fuse them creatively with the religious histories that exist prior to and alongside the orthodox Christian world.
In France, standard-pattern muskets did not exist prior to 1717, when the government specified a weapon with a 47-inch barrel and a calibre of.69 inch.
In one particularly interesting chapter, Gilman and Thomas discuss the relationship between hatred and the rise of the "crowd," or the mob, a social classification that didn't exist prior to the nineteenth century.
For someone like me, who grew up, worked and lived most of my life in Newham, the land that housed Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park simply did not exist prior to 2005.
