The
Tasmanian emu (
Dromaius novaehollandiae diemenensis) is an
extinct subspecies of the
emu. It was found on
Tasmania where it had become isolated during the
Late Pleistocene. As opposed to the other insular emu taxa, the
King Island and the
Kangaroo Island emu, the population on Tasmania was sizable, meaning that there were no marked effects of
small population size as in the other two isolates. Thus, the Tasmanian Emu had not progressed to the point where it could be considered a distinct
species, and even its status as a distinct subspecies is not universally accepted as it agreed with the mainland birds in measurements and the external characters used to distinguish it—a whitish instead of black foreneck and throat and an unfeathered neck—apparently are also present, albeit rare, in some mainland birds. There are suggestions the bird was slightly smaller than the modern emu, but in conflict, other evidence (including descriptions of Pleistocene remains) indicates that both are similar in size. Today, it is apparently only known from
subfossil bones, the skins which once existed having been lost.