Joint lubrication.
The fine-pored, easily compressed articular cartilage provides animal joints with self-pressurized hydrostatic (weeping) lubrication. The solid skeletons of the cartilages press against each other, but so lightly that their rubbing is lubricated successfully by synovial fluid--a boundary lubricant too weak to lubricate ordinary bearings.
D000818:Animals; D001696:Biomechanical Phenomena; D002358:Cartilage, Articular / Q000502:physiology*; D006801:Humans; D006874:Hydrostatic Pressure; D007596:Joints / Q000502:physiology*; D013582:Synovial Fluid / Q000502:physiology*