ass="kw"><a href="http://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/ape/topics/makeNodeLabel">makeNodeLabel</a></span>(bird.families)

<span class="co"># convert to phylo4 which has a few nice convenicnece methods including the</span>
<span class="co"># ability to get names with nodes.</span>
birds &lt;-<span class="st"> </span>phylobase<span class="op">::</span><span class="kw"><a href="http://www.rdocumentation.org/packages/phylobase/topics/phylo4-methods">phylo4</a></span>(birds)

<span class="co"># get MRCA</span>