[2] A previous depth work recovered a solid "Carixian" (Lower-Middle Pliensbachian) age from measurements done in the Tenney Canyon.

Even at a distance it appears as a dark-red, maroon, or lavender band of thin-bedded material between two thick, massive, cross bedded strata of buff, tan, or light-red color.

Its weak beds form a bench or platform developed by stripping the Navajo sandstone back from the face of the Wingate cliffs.

The sandstone beds, from less than 25 millimetres (1 in) to more than 3 metres (10 ft) thick, are composed of relatively coarse, well-rounded quartz grains cemented by lime and iron.

But in many sections the contact between the two formations is unconformable; the basal Kayenta consists of conglomerate and lenticular sandstone that fills depressions eroded in the underlying beds.

In Moqui Canyon near Red Cone Spring nearly 3 metres (10 ft) of Kayenta limestone conglomerate rests in a long meandering valley cut in Wingate.

The sedimentary structures showing the channel and flood plain deposits of streams are well exposed on switchbacks below the tunnel in Pine Creek Canyon.

In the southeastern part of Zion National Park a stratum of cross bedded sandstone is found roughly halfway between the top and bottom of the Kayenta Formation.

It is a "tongue" of sandstone that merges with the Navajo formation east of Kanab, and it shows that desert conditions occurred briefly in this area during Kayenta time.

This tongue is the ledge that shades the lower portion of the Emerald Pool Trail, and it is properly called Navajo, not Kayenta.

Apparently during Kayenta time Zion was situated in a climatic belt like that of Senegal with rainy summers and dry winters at the southern edge of a great desert.

Darwinula[5] Base of the "typical facies" Valves A freshwater (lacustrine or fluvial) ostracod, type member of the family Darwinulidae.

Liratina[5] Base of the "typical facies" Single shell A freshwater (lacustrine or fluvial) snail, incertae sedis inside Mesogastropoda.

Differs considerably from the species from the Upper Jurassic Morrison Formation, Liratina jurassicum Lymnaea[6] Base of the "typical facies" Shells A freshwater (lacustrine or fluvial) snail, member of the family Lymnaeidae.

Scabriculocypris[5] S. n. sp Base of the "typical facies" Valves A freshwater (lacustrine or fluvial) ostracod, incertae sedis inside Cypridacea.

Unio[7] Base of the "typical facies" Shells A freshwater (lacustrine or fluvial) Bivalve, member of the family Unionidae.

The "Kayenta Fish Fauna" is the last one recovered from the Glen Canyon Group sequence and it is delimited mostly to the silty facies of the Lower-Middle Part of the formation.

Toarcibatidae (= "Archaeobatidae")[10] Indeterminate Gold Spring Quarry 1 Base of the "typical facies" Isolated Tooth A freshwater (lacustrine or fluvial) toarcibatid.

Related originally with Micropristis or Libanopristis, and stated to be reworked from younger Cretaceous deposits, was found due to its asymmetrical cusp to fit within the definition of Toarcibatis, being more likely to be native of the formation.

Semionotidae[8][12][13] Indeterminate Base of the "typical facies" A freshwater (lacustrine or fluvial) semionotid semionotiform, probably related to the genus Semionotus.

Semionotiformes are the only properly identified bony fishes from the formation, including a large specimen exposed at the Dan O’Laurie Museum.

[14] Anura[9] Indeterminate Gold Spring Quarry 1 Silty Facies Member An early frog, incertae sedis relationships Eocaecilia[16] E. micropodia Gold Spring Quarry 1 Silty Facies Member A genus whose relationships are controversial, being considered one of the earliest gymnophionans as a close relative of caecilians Lissamphibia[9] Gold Spring Quarry 1 Silty Facies Member Incertae sedis relationships Prosalirus[17] P. bitis Gold Spring Quarry 1 Silty Facies Member MNA V 8725, associated desarticulated remains of 2 individuals; referred MCZ 9324 A & MCZ 9323 A An early frog, probably related to Notobatrachidae Urodela[9] Indeterminate Gold Spring Quarry 1 Silty Facies Member MCZ 9017, 9018, atlas vertebrae A possible stem-salamander, incertae sedis inside Urodela.

The oldest record of an urodelan from North America Navajosphenodon[18] N. sani Silty Facies An Advanced Sphenodont, member of Sphenodontinae.

The skeleton of N. sani shows a large number of similarities with the modern tuatara S. punctatus, clustering them closely together in the morphospace of sphenodontians and early lepidosaurs.

(S. "arizonensis") Valley of the Buttes Silty Facies UCMP 130056, scutes A controversial thyreophoran, resembles the osteoderms of S. harrisonii.

Interpreted as dwelling structures of vermiform animals, more concretely the Domichnion of a suspension-feeding Worm or Phoronidan, with certain Skolithos representing entrance shafts to more complicated burrows.