“…To obtain the phylogenetic relatedness information required for the phylogenetic comparative methods, we combined the time‐scaled ultrametric species trees for each phylum. Vertebrate and onychophoran time trees were obtained from the literature (Baker et al, 2021; Irisarri et al, 2017) and pruned to keep only a selection of 13 vertebrate species whose aquaporins have previously been studied (Finn et al, 2014) and the four onychophorans (or closely‐related species) that were included in MATEdb (Fernández et al, 2022), respectively. For the rest of the phyla, arthropods, molluscs and annelids, time‐scaled ultrametric trees were inferred independently by using a node‐dating approach on species trees that followed the most recent topologies (Anderson & Lindgren, 2021; Ballesteros et al, 2022; Colgan et al, 2007; Cunha & Giribet, 2019; Doğan et al, 2020; Erséus et al, 2020; Fernández et al, 2018; González et al, 2015; Johnson et al, 2018; Kallal et al, 2021; Kawahara et al, 2019; Kocot et al, 2011, 2013, 2020, 2017, 2019; Lee et al, 2019; Lindgren, 2010; Lozano‐Fernandez et al, 2019; McKenna et al, 2019; Misof et al, 2014; Moles & Giribet, 2021; Ontano et al, 2021; Pabst & Kocot, 2018; Peters et al, 2017; Razkin et al, 2015; Richter, 2001; Salvi & Mariottini, 2016; Schwentner et al, 2018; Smith, 2021; Smith et al, 2011; Sun et al, 2020; Uribe et al, 2016; Uribe & Zardoya, 2017; Wang et al, 2017; Wiegmann et al, 2011; Yang et al, 2018).…”