The shocking truth about hares and rabbits: Solving a crossword mystery

As a detective solving the mystery of the crossword clue “Hares and rabbits are really the same animal, some say,” my thought process went like this: First, I considered some possible synonyms for “hares” and “rabbits,” such as “lepus” (which means both), “cottontails,” and “bunnies.” However, none of these seemed particularly relevant to the rest of the clue. Then, I noticed the phrase “the same animal,” which suggested to me some kind of scientific or evolutionary perspective. This led me to wonder if there was some kind of biological classification or theory that might apply to both hares and rabbits. After some research, I discovered that biologists often group hares and rabbits together as members of the same family, Leporidae, but that there is ongoing debate about how to define this grouping. Moreover, this debate often revolves around the concept of “game theory,” which is a mathematical approach to understanding strategic interactions between individuals or groups. Suddenly, it clicked: “Hares and rabbits” were the two “players” in a game, and the game was the concept of “game theory” itself! This insight allowed me to confidently fill in the answer: GAMETHEORY. Overall, the key to cracking this crossword clue was to approach it with an open mind and look for connections and patterns that might not be immediately obvious, drawing on both language and knowledge from various disciplines.