Dogs have been dining on human food scraps since the early days of their domestication, it appears.
Our canine companions developed the ability to digest starchy foods during the farming revolution thousands of years ago, according to DNA evidence.
Scientists think dogs may have been domesticated from wolves when they came into settlements, scrounging for food.
Modern dogs can tolerate starch-rich diets, unlike their wolf cousins, which are carnivores.
A study of DNA extracted from the bones and teeth of ancient dogs at archaeological sites in Europe and Asia suggests their ability to eat starchy foods goes back millennia.
Lead researcher Dr Morgane Ollivier of ENS de Lyon, France, said human cultural development has influenced the first domesticated animal, the dog.
DNA samples from 8,000 to 4,000 years ago show the dog's ability to digest starch is ancient - hailing back to a time when hunter-gatherer societies adopted agriculture.-read more
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