Avimimus of bird-like features not known in other dinosaurs at the time. In fact, Kurzanov argued that "Avimimus", rather than the famous early bird "Archaeopteryx", was close to the direct ancestor of modern birds, and that "Archaeopteryx" was not as closely related to birds as had previously been suggested. However, this view has not been supported by later phylogenetic analyses of dinosaur and bird relationships. Most modern scientists find that "Avimimus" in fact belongs to a diverse group of bird-like dinosaurs more primitive than "Archaeopteryx", the oviraptorosaurs. Kurzanov placed "Avimimus" in its own family, Avimimidae, in 1981. In 1991, Sankar Chatterjee
Specimens of Archaeopteryx Tischlinger & Unwin (2004), who reclassified it as part of the sternum, albeit minimally ossified (mostly cartilagenous). This supports the idea that the Berlin "Archaeopteryx" was not a full-grown individual at the time of its death, and instead represents an immature animal. The pelvis of the Berlin specimen was considered by Dames to be markedly different from that of the London specimen, which was a major point in favor of his assigning a new species to the Berlin "Archaeopteryx", "siemensii", after its generous donor. Other researchers, however, disputed this difference, claiming it could be entirely accounted for by deformation of