sharedMesh : exporting the mesh only instead of armature+mesh?

Hi,

I don't understand the meaning of skinning a mesh from Blender to Unity: when I change a sharedMesh, it works if I export the armature+the mesh in Blender, and it throws an error when I only export the mesh and remove both the "Armature" and "Include Animation" in Blender. The error in Unity is then :

SkinnedMeshRenderer requires a mesh with skinning or blendshape information

Does it mean I always have to export the mesh with the armature? (It would mean storing an asset with a bit more weight, if there is a way to only export the mesh without the armature, it would be better).

Thanks