The Sierra Madre Formation was first formally described by Gutiérrez Gil in 1956, but previously reported by other authors (Böse, 1905; Ver Wiebe, 1925; Müllerried, 1936; Imlay, 1944).

The formation was studied in more detail and subdivided in several members (Chubb, 1959; Sánchez-Montes de Oca, 1969; Zavala-Moreno, 1971; Castro-Mora et al., 1975; Michaud, 1987; Quezada-Muñetón, 1987).

[1] A composed thickness of 2,590 metres (8,500 ft) was suggested by Steele and Waite (1986) for the Sierra Madre Formation, subdivided into 21 lithofacies.

The lowermost lithofacies corresponds to the stratigraphic level of El Espinal quarry, defined by Steele and Waite (1986) as dolomite and dolomitic breccia, located between 650 and 700 metres (2,130 and 2,300 ft) from the base of the formation, which rests conformably on top of the Late Jurassic to Early Cretaceous San Ricardo Formation.

[2] Similar fossils have been found in the Tlayúa Formation, of Albian age in Puebla, southern Mexico, as fishes, one odonate nymph and isopods.