Think of biofeedback in organisms. We exercise muscles, and they become larger and stronger. The same applies to bones and teeth, using them makes them stronger. Not using them makes them weaker. When it's cold, you get goosebumps. When the light is bright your pupils contract, but when it dims they expand. In bright sunlight your skin darkens, in low sunlight it lightens. All of these reactions to the environment occur without our knowledge or need to be consciously aware of them happening.

How does a snow hare know to grow white fur in Winter and brown fur in Spring? The changes in the environment cause physiological and metabolic changes in the animal's body. These changes create chemical alterations at the cellular level. I'm guessing that the ribosomes, which create everything from proteins and amino acids to RNA and DNA play a vital role in the evolution of a population.

If an alteration (be it chemical, nutritional, environmental, or another organism) in an organism's surroundings can cause ribosomes to begin coding for new amino acids or proteins, then what other effects can it have on ribosomal function? Could they also cause changes in the encoding of RNA? If so, then we have a very good candidate for an evolutionary mechanism.

I'm not saying that this is how it's done. It's just a hypothesis of mine, but I do truly think that ribosomes hold the key to understanding evolution.