What is Cartilage and What Purpose Does it Serve?

Human cartilage comes in three distinct types: fibrocartilage, elastic cartilage and hyaline cartilage. Cartilage is probably most famous for most people as a result of its replacement for a bone-based skeletal structure in sharks, but humans cannot live without cartilage either. Cartilage is appears throughout the human anatomy including your nose, ears, spine and even larynx. Fibrocartilage is situated mostly in the spine and acts to cushion the impact on disks in the vertebrae. Elastic cartilage provides shape to your ears. Hyaline cartilage the most ubiquitous and can be discovered in your fingers, and hips among other places.

Cartilage is abundant in human beings for two essential reasons other than keeping our ears from hanging down like a tube filled with molasses. The most obvious use of cartilage in the body is as a shock absorber. The action of taking just one step would be comparable to the pain of having to sit through every Paulie Shore movie ever made over and over again were it not for cartilage cushioning and relieving the stress associated with the weight you put on your knee and other joints. The great thing about cartilage is that while it is rubbery, it is also exceptionally elastic. The effects of friction, therefore, are mitigated as a result of ability of cartilage to ease back and forth and forward and backward. This is possible because the type of cartilage used in this cushioning effect, known as articular cartilage, is composed of a massive and complex series of properties designed especially to allow for give and take.