Manton, Sidnie Milana (married name Harding) (1902–1979)

English embryologist who specialized in the arthropods (jointed limbed animals including insects, spiders, crabs, and lobsters), concentrating mainly on their embryology and functional morphology in relation to evolution. She summarized her findings in her book The Arthropoda: Habits, Functional Morphology and Evolution 1977.

Manton was born in London, the daughter of George Manton, an eminent dental surgeon. She attended the Froebel Educational Institute and Girton College, Cambridge. She graduated in natural sciences 1925, coming top of the year in her zoology finals paper. After a year working at Imperial College, she returned to Cambridge as a university demonstrator in comparative anatomy during which time she obtained a PhD (1928). She was a fellow at Girton 1928–48, became a reader at King's College, London 1949, and was made an honorary associate of the British Museum. Both she and her sister, Irene Manton, were Fellows of the Royal Society and were awarded the Linnaean Society's Gold medal. She married John Philip Harding 1937, (later the keeper of zoology at the British Museum).