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 suggest that it had some black colouration which included the coverts (or possibly the secondary remiges). Carney pointed out that this is consistent with what we know of modern flight characteristics, in that black melanosomes have structural properties that strengthen feathers for flight. The preservation of the fossil feather is unusual. In contrast to the feather imprints found on the full skeletons of "Archaeopteryx", the isolated feather is preserved as a dark film, which could be composed either of organic matter (as in most fossil feathers) or as inorganic minerals. Though it is theoretically possible to determine which it is,