Palaeontology

Palaeontology spends most of its care on what is missing rather than on what is there: hard parts survive, soft ones do not, and nothing at all survives unless it was buried fast. The seventh entry is la impronta en la roca, and la impronta is worth taking whole. It is the mark left by a thing pressed into a surface while the surface was still soft — a leaf in mud, a shell in lime, a seal in wax. From that the word goes straight into people without changing register at all: aquella maestra dejó una impronta en todos nosotros says a teacher marked everyone who passed through, and la impronta del arquitecto se ve en cada edificio says the buildings carry his stamp. English keeps « imprint » for the physical and reaches for « mark », « stamp » or « legacy » for the rest; Spanish sees one pressing in both.