VISITORS to a North-East museum will be able to dive into the seven most deadly seas of all time and discover a prehistoric world of terrifying underwater monsters this summer.

BBC Sea Monsters: A Walking with Dinosaurs Exhibition explores the science and technology that made the television series possible and will open at the Hancock Museum, in Newcastle, on Saturday.

It features models used for filming the series and footage and large scale models of modern sea creatures, including a giant squid and a great white shark.

Visitors can come face-to face with living relatives of the prehistoric sea monsters, including an alligator and crocodiles.

There is also an octopus and horseshoe crabs.

Museum curator Steve McLean said: "This is a rare opportunity to see the live descendants of some of the sea monsters alongside models and pictures of their ancestors, as well as some other modern sea creatures."

Published: 15/07/2004