An exotic escort for predecessor (8)
I believe the answer is:
ancestor
'predecessor' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'an exotic escort' is the wordplay.
'exotic' indicates an anagram (an unusual form of the letters).
'escort' with letters rearranged gives 'cestor'.
'an'+'cestor'='ANCESTOR'
'for' is the link.
(Other definitions for ancestor that I've seen before include "Adam was our first one" , "Forefather" , "Old member of the family -no traces (anag)" , "Enactors (anag)" , "not being of the modern generation" .)