diff --git a/CHANGELOG.md b/CHANGELOG.md
index f6f1cbc..e805960 100644
--- a/CHANGELOG.md
+++ b/CHANGELOG.md
@@ -1,3 +1,5 @@
+* Version 4.5.5:
+  * Keep backwards compatible with dendropy < 4.5.2
 * Version 4.5.4:
   * Slight improvements in logging key information
 * Version 4.5.3:
diff --git a/sepp/__init__.py b/sepp/__init__.py
index 00d9cf0..2b0d373 100644
--- a/sepp/__init__.py
+++ b/sepp/__init__.py
@@ -27,7 +27,7 @@
            'jobs', 'math_utils', 'problem', 'scheduler',
            'scratch', 'tree', 'get_logger', 'is_temp_kept', 'version']
 
-version = "4.5.4"
+version = "4.5.5"
 _DEBUG = ("SEPP_DEBUG" in os.environ) and \
     (os.environ["SEPP_DEBUG"].lower() == "true")
 
diff --git a/sepp/tree.py b/sepp/tree.py
index bacfc54..8e18088 100644
--- a/sepp/tree.py
+++ b/sepp/tree.py
@@ -256,7 +256,12 @@ def bipartition_by_edge(self, e):
 
         nr.edge.length = None
         nr.parent_node = None
-        nr._convert_node_to_root_polytomy()
+        try:
+            nr._convert_node_to_root_polytomy()
+        except AttributeError:
+            from dendropy.datamodel.treemodel import \
+                _convert_node_to_root_polytomy
+            _convert_node_to_root_polytomy(nr)
         t1 = PhylogeneticTree(Tree(seed_node=nr))
         # temp we could speed this up,
         # by telling the Phylogenetic tree how many leaves it has
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index ee5b2ac..f79c169 100755
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -29,7 +29,7 @@
 from distutils.core import setup, Command
 
 use_setuptools(version="0.6.24")
-version = "4.5.4"
+version = "4.5.5"
 
 
 def get_tools_dir(where):