The Bexar Shale has been considered the offshore equivalent of the Cow Creek Limestone, the overlying Hensel sandstone, or of the disconformity between them in outcropping sections.

Cores and outcrops in Comal, Kendall, and northern Bexar Counties preserve calcitic and dolomitic caliche in the top of the Cow Creek Limestone. Above the caliche is 8-16 m (25-50 ft) of laminated or bioturbated, dolomitic siltstone and silty dolomite (Hensel dolomite). Dolomite is euhedral and silt-sized. The lower part contains collophane grains and oyster shells replaced partly by chalcedony. Carbonate grains within the upper part include angular and well-rounded mollusk and echinoid fragments; many are pyritic and coated by glauconite. Terrigenous grains in Hensel dolomite grade upward from silt to coarse subarkose sand from central Texas.

In southern Bexar County, about 35 m (115 ft) of silt-, clay-, and calcite-mudstone referable to the Bexar Shale sharply overlie shallow marine Cow Creek Limestone, and grade abruptly upward into about 7 m (23 ft) of Hensel dolomite. Dolomite is overlain by calcarenite of the Glen Rose Formation containing subarkose sand grains. Similar distinctive sand grains occur in well cuttings of basal Glen Rose beds northeastward through Travis County.

The Bexar represents a flood of clay-sized sediment from a distant source, spread across the San Marcos arch during a rapid transgression. Slightly younger sand, silt, and local clay of the Hensel sandstone were eroded from central Texas by a few flash floods during a major period of caliche formation in that area.

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