Paraphyly and names

[Thomas DiBenedetto]

-----Original Message-----
From: SKÁLA Zdenek
...Very often one need to have a *system* of taxa instead of to discuss one
particular clade. Such cases include (but are not  restricted to) teaching
of biology in a school, arrangment of national faunas/floras etc. In such
cases, I suspect, the cladogram/ad hoc naming of taxa will not suffice.
******
Why? Cladistic taxa form a system. What is the problem? There is nothing
wrong with teaching a course about mammals (a recognized monophyletic
group), or organizing that course around the traditionally recognized
subtaxa - such as the "orders", so long as one uses monophyletic groups. One
can choose to focus on particular taxa to make general comments, so long as
they are natural groups. I really dont see what difficulties you imagine. 
Tom