The exact taxonomic placement of this group was initially uncertain and controversial. When describing the first validly published specimen in 2002 ("Scansoriopteryx heilmanni"), Czerkas and Yuan proposed that various primitive features of the skeleton (including a primitive, "saurischian-style" pubis and primitive hip joint) showed that scansoriopterygids, along with other maniraptorans and birds, split from other theropods very early in dinosaur evolution. However, this interpretation has not been followed by most other researchers. In a 2007 cladistic analysis of relationships among coelurosaurs, Phil Senter found "Scansoriopteryx" to be a member of the clade Avialae. This view was supported by a second phylogenetic analysis performed by Zhang "et al." in 2008.