A giant pre-historic reptile due to star in a major exhibition has got stuck in the post.

The replica pterosaur - a flying leviathan that ruled the skies about 150 million years ago - is billed as the centre-stage attraction at Brighton Science Festival but has been delayed in India where it was on display.

Festival organisers have employed an express courier service to bring it back and hope it will be delivered in time for the show at the weekend.

Richard Robinson, science festival director said: "We're not getting in a flap about it.

"It's been suggested that the Indian government might be holding the pterosaur to ransom until Jade Goody apologises for her unsavoury antics on Big Brother but I'd like to say that there's absolutely no truth in this.

"We expect our special guest to be flying in on time."

The model of the 65 million-year-old beast, which has previously been on display at Buckingham Palace, is set to be swinging from the ceiling of Komedia next Sunday.

It belongs to David Martill and Bob Loveridge from Portsmouth University who were arranging its exhibition in Brighton.

They had shipped it to Mumbai as part of a collection of full-size pterosaur models for Techfest 2007, Asia's largest science and technology show.

However, it was too bulky to bring back with them on the airplane and has got stranded with customs officers.

Mr Loveridge said: "We shipped out the models to India and were planning on bringing them back with us but they were obviously too big to bring back in our holdalls.

"We donated one of the models to the Nehru Science Centre in India for children to enjoy and leaving one behind has possibly confused the paperwork and administration.

"But we are putting our faith in DHL and hope everything will be back soon."

The five-metre wide pterosaur model is in a case containing two other full-size replicas, two skulls replicas, bone replicas and castings, and 12 information boards.

Mr Loveridge added they would have other exhibits at the science festival if the ones in India did not arrive.

They include a pterosaur model used in one of the BBC's first programmes about evolution.

Scientists are not sure about the ancestry of pterosaurs. Most palaeontologists think they belong to a group of reptiles known as archosaurs, which includes crocodiles, dinosaurs and birds.

Brighton Science Festival runs from February 18 to February 25 at Komedia.

Visit www.brighton science.com for more information.