Thanks for taking a look Walter. When I found this I initially thought it was an incomplete vert of some sort as well but leaned towards an ungual after taking a good look at it. The “bottom surface is worn but does appear to have some of the original surface. The anterior end looks (to me) like most other reptilian unguals I’ve seen online; we don’t see many of these in NC so an expert I am most certainly not. I did have the paleontologist at the NC Museum of Natural Sciences take a look at it and he felt it was an ungual but didn’t have any idea as to a species.
Thanks again for your time and any further info you might have would be greatly appreciated!