You’re right, of course. I was just pointing out that clades nest nicely. Whether you talk about Theria or Eutheria, the species included or excluded by the differences will be the most distantly related ones such as monotremes; but no clade anywhere similar in scope to Eutheria would be able to exclude dolphins. In that sense, it doesn’t matter much which “indisputably” mammalian groups you take, their MRCA will be an ancestors of dolphins as well. For instance, the MRCA of humans and of cats is also an ancestor of dolphins.
You’re right, of course. I was just pointing out that clades nest nicely. Whether you talk about Theria or Eutheria, the species included or excluded by the differences will be the most distantly related ones such as monotremes; but no clade anywhere similar in scope to Eutheria would be able to exclude dolphins. In that sense, it doesn’t matter much which “indisputably” mammalian groups you take, their MRCA will be an ancestors of dolphins as well. For instance, the MRCA of humans and of cats is also an ancestor of dolphins.