The early Palaeogene represents a key interval in the evolution of modern marine fish faunas. Together with the first appearances of many familiar fish lineages characteristic of contemporary marine environments, early Palaeogene marine deposits worldwide feature the occurrence of osteoglossid bonytongues. Their presence in marine rocks is surprising, as these fishes are strictly associated with freshwater environments in modern settings and other parts of the fossil record. Despite its possible relevance to faunal recovery after the K–Pg extinction, this marine osteoglossid radiation is relatively understudied. Here we describe an osteoglossid specimen from marine Danian deposits of western Greenland (Eqalulik Formation, northern Nuussuaq Peninsula). It consists of disarticulated cranial, pectoral and vertebral material belonging to a relatively large-bodied predator, similar to the widespread †Brychaetus but with some distinctive features. This specimen expands the geographic range of extinct osteoglossids to the Arctic and represents one of the earliest records of this group in marine deposits. We review other fossil occurrences of marine osteoglossids, highlighting temporal and biogeographic patterns that characterize their rise, diversification and sudden disappearance in the middle Eocene. It is likely that the transition from freshwater to marine environments occurred around the K–Pg boundary, possibly related to ecological replacement of predatory fish lineages that went extinct at the end of the Cretaceous. Further study of the Eqalulik Formation fauna could yield additional insight into the consequences of the end-Cretaceous extinction on marine fish evolution and on the assembly of modern marine faunas.