The formation consists primarily of marine limestone with some sandstone and shale. It is exposed in the Sandia Mountains, the Lucero Uplift,, the western Jemez Mountains,, and in the Manzano Mountains. The formation has been mapped as the Wild Cow Formation in the Manzano Mountains and as the Guadelupe Box Formation in the Jemez Mountains. However, Lucas et al. have recommended abandoning the name Wild Cow Formation and using Atrasado Formation throughout the Madera Group. The formation is likely correlative with the Alamitos Formation in the Sangre de Cristo Mountains. The formation is underlain by the Gray Mesa Formation, with its base defined by a sandstone interval atop an eroded limestone surface of the Gray Mesa Formation. It is overlain by the Bursum Formation or by the Abo Formation where the Bursum Formation is not present. The formation is divided into eight members. In ascending stratigraphic order, these are the Bartolo Member, which is of slope-forming shale with thin sandstone, limestone and conglomerate beds; the Amado Member, which is of bedded, cherty limestone; the Tinajas Member, which is of shale with interbedded limestone and sandstone; the Council Spring Member which is of mostly algal limestone without chert; the Burrego Member, which is of arkosicred beds and limestone; the Story Member, which is of limestone; the Del Cuerto Member, which is of arkosic red beds and limestone; and the Moya Member, which is of bedded limestone and shale.
The unit was first described as the Atrasado Member of the Madera Formation by Kelley and Wood in 1951. The Pennsylvanian stratigraphy of New Mexico has historically been unusually complex and inconsistent, with dozens of names for groups, formations, and members. Kues and Giles recommended that the name Madera Group be applied to similar exposures of shelf and marginal basin beds of Desmoinean to early Virgilian age found from north-central and central New Mexico south along the west side of the Orogrande Basin as far as the Caballo and Robledo Mountains. Lucas et al. recommended abandoning the name Wild Cow Formation and using Atrasado Formation throughout the Madera Group.
