Conscious of being the only city in Colorado without a golf course, the good people of Golden had been searching for a suitable site for more than 10 years. And it seemed their prayers were answered when the owner of a former clay mine donated land earlier this year.

But there's a problem. It has emerged that the site includes 65-million-year-old tracks of duckbilled Hadrosaurs which, devotees of Jurassic Park will recognise as crocodile-life reptiles known as Champosaurs and carnivorous dinosaurs called Theropods. There is also the track of a Triceratops.

Under the city's plan, three of the five fossil sites in clay hillsides three to 12 feet deep, will be preserved, a palm frond will be put in the clubhouse and a fifth site will be covered up. And the public will be allowed to view the fossils on special days.

"I think we're doing it right," said the city manager. "If it wasn't for the golf course, we wouldn't be able to pay for the preservation." And the scheme has been endorsed by the state archeologist. But critics with banners decrying "Golf instead of History", insist that the city is overlooking the archaeological significance of the sites.

"These fossils should not only be preserved, but made assessible to the public and not be buried," an official of Friends of Dinosaur Ridge has written to city officials. All of which is certain to give a new slant to the oft-voiced criticism of golf clubs being inhabited by dinosaurs.