A site on King Island containing the fossils of an extinct emu has been destroyed by an internationally renowned golf course, and other sites are under threat, a UK palaeontologist says.

About one-third of the size of a mainland emu, the endemic species of dwarf emu dromaius minor became extinct in the early 1800s.

Its bones were found in sand dunes and soil on the island in the early 1900s, and over the past few decades a local historian has collected bone and egg material from the island's west coast.

The dwarf emu became extinct in the early 1800s. ( Supplied: University of Sydney )

Knowing this, Julian Hume, an avian palaeontologist with the Natural History Museum in England, undertook a survey of the island in 2014.

Adult, above, and juvenile, leg bones of dwarf emus found at Cape Wickham. ( Supplied: Natural History Museum )

"We started on the west coast and worked upwards and finally on the northern tip of King Island we found our first fossil material," he said.

After the success of the first survey, Mr Hume's team returned for a more thorough survey of emu distribution in 2015.

By then, the highly anticipated ocean-view Cape Wickham Links golf course had been built on the island's northern tip.

"And again we found more material, but sadly that first site that we found had been developed," Mr Hume said.

"They've completely dug it over, turfed it and it's now one of the courses, so there's absolutely nothing there at all.

"There's probably good material still but it's buried under the green of the golf course."

'All these sites are being buried under grass'

Palaeontologist Julian Hume fears for other sites in King Island being grassed over. ( Supplied: Julian Hume )

Mr Hume has published a research paper about the surveys: "In Search of the Dwarf Emu".

It is unclear if the golf course developers or the King Island Council, which approved the development, were aware of fossils at the site — both have been contacted for comment.

Cape Wickham Links was sold to a Vietnam-based investor in July 2017.

Mr Hume said King Island's other key industries were putting other fossil sites at risk.

"Because of the cattle production on King Island, which it's famous for and, of course, its cheese, the grass is encouraged to grow and these areas are just turned into grassland," he said.

"It's burying all these sites under grass."

Last dwarf emus died in Paris

Local King Island historian Christian Robertson has for decades collected material from the dwarf emu as well as the tiger quoll and wombat that are now extinct on the island.

"Some [sites] are probably going under threat, between golf courses and cattle and just the earth moving in general around the coast," he said.

Cape Wickham Links, finished in 2015, was sold to a Vietnam-based investor in 2017. ( Supplied )

He would like to see more thorough surveying of sites for history and natural history values prior to development on the island.

"There's really no attention given to them, and people that come in maybe don't realise the relevance of some things here, and once it's gone it's gone," he said.

He said there seemed to be scientific interest in the dwarf emu because of the 1802 visit to King Island by Captain Nicolas Baudin, who took a male and female dwarf emu to the Jardins des Plantes in Paris, where they were to become the last of the species, surviving until 1822.