ID Please: Mystery Fossil in Alabama Pennsylvanian Shale

[zmo63]

My first fossil and I'm already stumped - hoping someone can point me in the right direction here! My husband is a geologist and brought a piece of shale home with a fossil poking out. I've been chipping away inexpertly, and can't figure out what I'm looking at. This was found outside Birmingham Alabama, in the Mary Lee Formation, near the Pratt Seam. My husband tells me the area was freshwater swamp during the Pennsylvanian Period. What am I looking at here? I know it shouldn't be soft tissue, but it doesn't seem to be plant, shell, or bone, either! Please set me straight!

 

I hope these pictures are ok - as you can see, I'm not done cleaning it... but I'm  trying to be cautious since I'm learning as I go. Also possibly relevant: the shale was riddled with dark colored fossil plants. My husband said they were carbon - they nearly disintegrate on contact. I've included a picture of those, too. 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Here are pictures of the plant fossils in the rock that were exposed when we broke it apart. The mystery fossil is on the top of the left rock.

 

Thank you all!

Edited February 2, 2019 by zmo63

[Innocentx]

Maybe there's a shrimp in there but it's hard to tell yet. Nice to have a geologist for a husband.

Welcome to the forum from Kansas!

[zmo63]

Thank you! Some sort of crustacean would make sense to me - I can't find pictures of fossils that look like this one, but it has tiny raised bumps that remind me of a crab claw. I'll keep cleaning slowly. I don't want to take it out of the rock because I like the context, but hopefully I can expose a little more detail without breaking it.