These preserve fossils from the Leonardian to Guadalupian Epochs of the Permian Period.

[1][2] The Artesia Group is interpreted as a sequence of shelf rocks of the Capitan reef.

It shows cyclicity and considerable lateral variation, from carbonate rocks near the Capitan reef, to mixed dolomitic mudstone, evaporites, and sandstones of a lagoon environment further from the reef, to a near-shore environment of evaporites, massive red siltstones, and minor amounts of dolomite.

[2] The formation is prominent in the subsurface near Artesia, New Mexico, where it attains a thickness of 1,710 feet (520 m).

[2] In its northernmost exposures, in Glorieta Pass, it is lowered to formation rank.