Sarah Harding

Dr. Sarah Harding was a young scientist, specialized in animal behavior. In both the novels and movies she joins the research group led by Ian Malcolm (with which she has some kind of relationship in both canons) to Isla Sorna.

The Lost World novel
In the novel, Sarah was an animal behaviorist who worked in the African savanna; her theories were very controversial. She survived multiple encounters with lions by shouting and throwing stones. Sarah was described as being muscular and having short black hair, and because she had such a unique character, she became very famous and was the idol of Kelly Curtis. Michael Crichton has confirmed that she is the daughter of Gerry Harding (source?).

When Ian Malcolm was in the Costa Rican hospital, recovering from his wounds from Isla Nublar incident, Sarah visited him. After that they fell in love, but in the end they both continued with their work, and never got into a successful relationship.

When she was asked to join the research group, led by Ian Malcolm, to Isla Sorna, she immediately left Africa and flew to Costa Rica. Her main rival was Lewis Dodgson, who threw her overboard a ship on their way to Isla Sorna. Dodgson was antagonistically claiming to support his rival company Biosyn. She got her revenge on Dodgson later in the novel, by pushing him into the mouth of an adult Tyrannosaurus rex. The adult fed Dodgson to its infants. She was an extremely capable female character, rescuing many of the other characters throughout the novel.

The Lost World: Jurassic Park
She joined a small team of researchers on Isla Sorna on John Hammond's request. In the film, her relationship with Malcolm was ongoing. She also performed research on living animals, at the zoo of San Diego. She seemed to know very much about dinosaur anatomy and knew all the latin names of the leg muscles in the infant T. rex she treated. She strongly believed that tyrannosaurs should be known as protective, nurturing parents. This put her at odds with Robert Burke, who believed otherwise. The tyrannosaurs stalked the group for a time, because Harding's jacket was covered in blood from when her and Van Owen set the infant tyrannosaur's leg.

She was present at the San Diego incident and successfully tranquilized the male adult tyrannosaur before it could be terminated by animal control. She was last shown in the film asleep with Malcolm, on his couch, while on television, John Hammond commented on the San Diego incident.

Character development
Sarah's movie character is based on the Sarah from the Lost World novel, but some of her characteristics were exchanged with that of Richard Levine; as he did not appear in the film. Her personality is more talkative and less serious than it was in the novel. She fills part of the role Levine has in the novel: both are the first to go to the island, which causes the others to start a "rescue mission", and both don't want to be rescued. In the film, Sarah was a behavior paleontologist.

Known Family

 * Dr. Gerry Harding - father
 * Mrs. Harding - former step-mother
 * Jess Harding - half-sister
 * Ian Malcom - boyfriend

Jurassic Park inspired games
Sarah Harding is a playable character in the game The Lost World: Jurassic Park, although the character is called "Human Prey". Like in the novel she drives in a car to the Worker Village and is chased by Velociraptors.

She also appeared in Chaos Island: The Lost World as one of the playable units in the game.

She also is mentioned by John Hammond in the game Jurassic Park: Operation Genesis. She however is not part of the Operation Team. In the main menu exercise The Lost World, she is mentioned in a interview letter box to come check on Isla Nublar to pose photos of dinosaurs and exhibit them again after the island's reputation was destroyed. She doesn't appear in the game.

Sarah is mentioned twice in Jurassic Park: The Game.

Trivia

 * Sarah is the daughter of Gerry Harding from his first marriage. When Gerry remarried he had a second daughter, Jessica, whom is Sarah's half-sister.