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Dug this up during an add-on to the house... Have this small one and a bigger one.

First and foremost, I’m new to fossil collecting and what an amazing journey it’s been. I live in Lincoln County Missouri near the Cuivre River and have found some amazing fossils. It seems the creek that flows into the Cuivre is CHOCK FULL of “death plate fossils” (sorry if I used the wrong terminology). Being a “newbie” I have many ID’s to request. I will start today with my newest find.

Location: East Missouri Being a really new hunter, this is only the 10th or so actual fossil i've ever found, and it's a doozy. A large death plate that I stumbled upon, that I want to do some prep work on to try and uncover and identify what appears to be some actual fossilized bone. Or even if not, just uncover some of the depth. There's a ton of surface cracks here that i've been gently tapping to work some of this plating off, but i'm more super curious about the general structure here. I've highlighted a few areas that I'm concerned about touching, and would love some feedback. What's my concern? I've noted in the below pictures below, but there is a highlighted area that has a suspiciously smooth texture that makes me worry I am actually going to work on top of or chip away a larger set of fossil. So long as what i'm working with here is just some common fossil of no historic value, I have less concerns, but the size of the mass on the lower right has me concerned to work on this specimen at all rather than turning it into our local Science Center for management. I'd love some opinions here on what exactly i'm working with, and any other general conversation Note: I've pushed the contrast on the fossil-overlay image to help show some of the detail on a hazy day photo. I have included both an overlayed image with some text and the full RAW image from my camera with higher resolution for examination.

Some finds from our most recent fossil finding expedition to Alpena Michigan. Anyone know species possibly of these two? One with spikes and one without?