BEFORE a backdrop of fire and lava, a mythically-proportioned beast hangs above the unsuspecting, beckoning them to within. From this description, one could be forgiven for thinking that Bermuda Underwater Exploration Institute had taken a turn to the surreal.

But this gatekeeper belongs not in a myth, but in a museum. The 46-foot elasmosaurus has hung over the Institute's entrance since June, welcoming visitors to the BUEI Savage Ancient Seas exhibit.

This week, the went along to the BUEI (off East Broadway in Hamilton) to peer into the mouths of 50-foot, Jonas-worthy sharks and marvel at the beasts which ruled the prehistoric seas.

It's the first travelling exhibition of this size ever to visit Bermuda. It's also the first time the exhibit ? run by Rocky Mountain Dinosaur Resource Centre (RMDRC) ? has ever travelled overseas. At the centre of it all is BUEI director Wendy Tucker.

"I'm a member of the American Association of Science and Technology Museums," said Ms Tucker. "I first came across the exhibition a few years ago in one of their publications.

"It was very popular at the time, so we had to wait in line for a bit."

So over-subscribed was the exhibition, in fact, that it took two years to negotiate its arrival. Finally this May, the exhibit was shipped here in its entirety in massive crates. There were likely more than a few who noticed the irony of these beasts of the deep travelling the seas by ship.

"I took us a week to assemble the exhibit. Normally, museums will have one great space to put them in. With our size, that just isn't possible. So what we've done is spread the exhibit out into different rooms."

The result is a wonderfully assembled tour through the ancient seas, replete with up-close encounters with plenty of creatures one would rather not meet in flesh. Likewise, the sprawled-out nature of the exhibit cannot be said to detract anything from it.

Indeed, it's used to great effect. In the diving room, for example, there's a beastly-looking fish which dwarfs the model scuba diver hung aside it. In the next room ? which usually houses the Institute's shell collection ? there's an ancient oyster on display.

Below, in the darkened deep sea room, the skull of a tylosaurus marine lizard lurks in the shadows. The undoubted centrepiece of the exhibit is the formidable xiphactinus. The 17-foot fish is described as the 'pit bull of the sea', and looks every bit of it.

It is suspended as delicately as a chandelier above the Institute's staircase. A few awe-struck tourists could be seen gazing at it in silent wonder. A nearby sign contained the reminder that the fish has been extinct for at least 65 million years. It is perhaps just as well.

Interestingly, most of the fossils displayed were discovered in, of all places, Kansas.

"In prehistoric times, there was a 600-feet-deep ocean which ran through the centre of the US," explained Ms Tucker.

The ocean, of course, dried up millions of years ago. The fossils remained. Today, from time to time, a rainstorm will dig up the remains of the kings of the ancient seas. The process is hardly as glamorous as movies would have you believe.

A complete skeleton of even the smallest creatures is unheard of. Instead, the fossils are composed of multiple specimens formed in to one. It requires a meticulous effort, but the results are spectacular.

Even though many of the creatures on display are casts moulded from the original fossils, they've lost none of their grandeur. The face of the pachyrhizodus is just as haunting, the teeth of the xiphactinus just as fearsome as if they had been pulled from the ocean the day before.

It's surely a credit to those behind the exhibit that each specimen was remarkably intact. Indeed ? as though flies in amber ? they were suspended as if frozen in a moment in time. Once imperious, as Hamlet mused, dead and turned to clay. In all, it's a sight to behold.

"The visitors have just loved it. They'll come here and then return to their ships or hotels and tell other tourists about it. We've even had more locals than we did before as well. We've had school children of all ages coming to see the exhibit. We're thrilled with the results."

Of all the emotions one could associate with the creatures, and there are many, it's difficult to imagine endearment among them. Such is the case, however, of the staff of the BUEI.

"We've become attached to them," said Ms Tucker. "It will be really sad to see them go!" .