'Average' height yields most children

Women might dream of tall, dark and handsome, but researchers are claiming that it is men of average height who are having the most children.

Scientists studying men in the US said those who were 178cm (5ft 10in) were the most reproductively successful.

Writing in the journal Behavioural Ecology and Sociobiology, they said such men produced, on average, more than two-and-a-half children.

The authors said it might be due to men of average height marrying earlier.