by JAMES CHAPMAN, Daily Mail

Taller men are likely to have more children because women find them more attractive, say researchers.

Females have their own means of natural selection and, consciously or subconsciously, equate height with power, reproductive fitness and earning ability

But there is also a downside for a wife with a tall husband. He is more likely to leave her for a younger woman and have a child with her as well.

For decades, evolutionary psychologists have studied the lives of 333 men ranging in height from 5ft 2in to 6ft 5in who all graduated from a U.S. military academy in 1950.

They found that short men were more likely to remain single.

Even those who did marry produced fewer children than their loftier colleagues. The tallest men were six times more likely to have had a fourth child as the shortest.

Dr Allan Mazur, who led the research which is reported in today's New Scientist magazine, said: 'There is ample evidence that on all levels of courtship, women do make the choices.'

More often than not they preferred taller men as mates and ultimately as fathers. 'Tall-ness is pretty much universally attractive. I don't really know why,' he said.

'Possibly because tallness is a highly heritable trait and a reliable indicator of male offspring's potential for high status.

'Everyday experience suggests that, on average, taller men are heavier and physically stronger than shorter men.'

Dr Mazur, from Syracuse University, New York, was intrigued by the discovery that the taller the man, the greater the chances of him having a second marriage.

He could only assume that being more attractive to women, tall men had more sexual opportunities.

Height is about 90 per cent genetic. So it appears that, with tall men having more children, humans will continue to get taller.

The average height of adolescent boys in Britain has shot up nine inches since the 1830s.

The study is the latest setback for the shorter man. Experts in the study of human growth say taller men are likely to live longer, find a job more easily and become richer.

Dr John Lazarus, from the Evolution and Behaviour Research Group at Newcastle University, said the attractiveness of tall men was probably an evolutionary hangover from a time when physical size and strength were essential for survival.