The paintings on the right hand wall of the entrance are exact replicas of those found in the Cheke Rock Shelter in Central Tanzania, while those on the blocks set into the opposite wall are examples of specific illustrations found in other caves. Paintings in one of the caves, Kisese, are about 34,000 years old the same age as those at Lascanx, France. The detail generally present in illustrations featuring animals is in sharp contrast to the more symbolic drawings of most human figures. A wall map to the right of the main gallery entrance shows locations of some of the more important East African fossil sites which follow the path of the Rift Valley. The first three display cases focus on the process of fossil formation and detail the techniques used in the subsequent discovery, recovery and dating of such records.
Subsequent cases illustrate the evolution of higher primates.
A cast on the floor shows a small section of a trail of footprints recorded in hardened volcanic ash deposited at Laetoli in northern Tanzania 3.75 million years ago. These footprints indicate early evidence of upright mobility, a distinctive characteristic of man. Above this stone record is a wall size time chart featuring hominid skulls illustrating the evolutionary trend which resulted in us, Homo sapiens sapiens . A small free standing display case near the centre of the room serves as evidence to the fact that the records do not always clearly indicate single trends. The dark skull with the rather heavy ridge along its crest is older than speculation previous to its discovery suggested.