[5] However, since the description, many more troodontids have been described with cranial material, and as such, a 2009 study on Saurornithoides reassigned this species to its own genus, Zanabazar.

[6] The highly ossified hindlimb suggested that Saurornithoides and other troodontids were well developed at birth and that they probably required little to no parental care.

Troodontids have sickle-claws and raptorial hands, and some of the highest non-avian encephalization quotients, meaning they were behaviourally advanced and had keen senses.

Swift and smart, like its North American cousin Troodon, Saurornithoides probably scoured the Gobi Desert, looking for small mammals or reptiles to eat.

[4] A juvenile specimen of S. mongoliensis was described in 1993 and gave insights into the life history of the species as well as its relatives;[6] the highly ossified hindlimb suggested that Saurornithoides and other troodontids were well developed at birth and that they probably required little to no parental care.

A revision of the genus in 2009 provided a differential diagnosis, a list of traits in which Saurornithoides differed from certain relevant relatives, especially concentrating on determining its place in the evolutionary tree.

That Saurornithoides mongoliensis might be more derived, higher in the tree, than Sinornithoides and Sinusonasus, is indicated by the lack of a fenestra promaxillaris, a small opening at the front side of the snout, and the possession of large denticles on the rear tooth edges as well as the presence of the high number of six sacral vertebrae.

That S. mongoliensis might be more basal, lower in the tree, than Zanabazar and Troodon, is shown by the presence of a recessus tympanicus dorsalis, the upper one of three small openings on the side of the braincase, in the inner ear region.

[3] Only in 1974, Barsbold, while describing S. junior, understood the connection with American forms such as Stenonychosaurus and named an encompassing Saurornithoididae.

[5] In 1987, Philip John Currie showed that this concept was a junior synonym of Troodontidae, implying that Saurornithoides were a troodontid too.