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I always believed that dependant related to the person!

............and as a noun rather than an adjective: dependants in the family context, I always understood.

I have always thought that if one was dependent on something or someone, then one became a dependant.

Thanks to both
The phrase I read was "Neanderthals grew relatively rapidly and spent less time dependAnt on their parents".
It's a bit fuzzy, but if it were being used as a noun it should be "less time as dependants", shouldn't it?

That depends ;-)

Couldn't this be a liberty our cousins across The Pond take with the spelling? "NS" is originally U.S., isn't it --- or maybe the article you're reading, the author, or it's s'one more familiar with Am. scientific expressions written that way?

Good point, GK - the author is Canadian (though if it were incorrect, you would expect and English sub-editor to correct it?)

I missed the New Scientist reference - no, it has always been an English publication.

Standards are slipping !

If Chambers is reflecting usage rather than setting it (which, I suppose it would argue, should be the case) entries are not necessarily "correct" - for example, that baffling use of CREEK that came up on the RT9 thread (you know what I am referring to, jazzy).