Human chromosome 2 is a product of a telomere fusion of two ancestral 
chromosomes and loss/degeneration of one of the two original centromeres. 
Genomic signatures of this event are limited to inverted telomeric repeats at 
the precise site of chromosomal fusion and to the small amount of relic 
centromeric sequences that remain on 2q21.2. Unlike the site of fusion, which is 
enriched for sequences that are shared elsewhere in the human genome, the region 
of the nonfunctioning and degenerate ancestral centromere appears to share 
limited similarity with other sites in the human genome, thereby providing an 
opportunity to study this genomic arrangement in short, fragmented ancient DNA 
genomic datasets. Here, chromosome-assigned satellite DNAs are used to study 
shared centromere sequence organization in Denisovan and Neandertal genomes. By 
doing so, one is able to provide evidence for the presence of both active and 
degenerate centromeric satellite profiles on chromosome 2 in these archaic 
genomes, supporting the hypothesis that the chromosomal fusion event took place 
prior to our last common ancestor with Denisovan and Neandertal hominins and 
presenting a genomic reference for predicting karyotype in ancient genomic 
datasets.