ID request from a complete amateur - a possible leaf?

[armorlord]

I found this specimen in Wyoming's Bighorn basin, off one of the roads north of the city of Shell. I can't decide if it's a claw or a leaf, or perhaps something else entirely. 

 

 

On a side note, the matrix (sandstone? maybe just mud) is crumbling so I decided to cover the specimen with resin. I've yet to apply resin to the cavity in the other half of the stone. 

Suggestions for further preservation and a way to safely remove the matrix around the piece would be appreciated.

[Doctor Mud]

I don't see anything that makes me think of plant material, I suggest that it could be a trace fossil or a burrow made in the sediment before it lithified

[armorlord]

Very interesting... I didn't even consider trace fossils. I'd love to hear a bit more elaboration of what it could've came from

[Fossildude19]

Looks more like a cross section of shell material, to me.  

Any idea what other fossils are found in the area?

 

[armorlord]

http://www.bbgeoscience.org/fossil_sites.htm

 

 

I believe the area used to be a lake bed. Even How It's Made did some filming there showing how easily the rock layers come apart and away from the fossils.

 

There's everything from marine fossils to dinosaur tracks to dinosaur bones to vegetation. Big Horn is quite a rich location for fossils in general.