Scientists say they have discovered why dogs love to eat meat and bones.
Ancient canines adopted pack-living about eight million years ago, to hunt larger prey, according to researchers.
The resulting evolution of their jaws gradually turned the ancestors of modern wolves, and ultimately our own pets, into "hypercarnivores".
Dr Joao Munoz-Doran presented the findings at the First Joint Congress for Evolutionary Biology in Ottawa, Canada.
He and his colleagues from the National University of Colombia have created a canine "family tree", piecing together the relationships between each of the more than 300 dog species.
"We compared species that have very different diets," Dr Munoz-Doran explained to BBC Nature.
"So we classified them as carnivores, hypercarnivores [animals that eat more than 70% meat] and omnivores [animals that eat meat and vegetation]."
The ancestors of modern wolves belong to this hypercarnivorous group.
The team's analysis showed that the skull features that now distinguish a wolf - strong jaw muscles and enlarged canine teeth - first started to develop when their ancestors first began hunting in groups.
"We found a common evolutionary history for these traits," Dr Munoz-Doran explained.
"Eight million years ago was when [less forested, more] open habitats were spreading through Asia, Europe and North America.
"And when there are open habitats, the big prey group together. So there will be more eyes watching for a predator."
Continued: http://www.bbc.co.uk/nature/18767817
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