Individual bodies are not passed down through generations the way genes are.

True: standard biology as of 2012 holds that organisms' bodies (somatic phenotypes) are not inherited or replicated across generations, while genes are copied and transmitted, i.e. the replicator/vehicle distinction is accepted. Mostly true: the core distinction is accepted but the claim glosses over a minor recognised qualification (e.g., some non-genetic or epigenetic inheritance) that does not undercut the point. Mixed: the literature treats the distinction as substantially contested, with roughly equal support for and against. Mostly false: the claim distorts the science, for example if heritable transmission of bodily or phenotypic traits is shown to work much as gene transmission does. False: mainstream biology shows that individual bodies are passed down across generations in the same way genes are.

Set before the research began.

1. E1 [PDF] Genes and Memes - John Maynard Smith John Maynard Smith (review of The Extended Phenotype, New York Review of Books, 1982) · 4 February 1982

   “He urges us to recognise the fundamental distinction between ‘replicators’ – entities whose precise structure is replicated in the process of reproduction – and ‘vehicles’: entities which are mortal and which are not replicated, but whose properties are influenced by replicators.”

2. E2 Selfish genetic elements and the gene’s-eye view of evolution Current Zoology (Oxford Academic) · 1 December 2016

   “Replicators are entities that faithfully produce copies of themselves that are transmitted across generations. In biological evolution, as far as we know, genes play this role. A vehicle is an entity that interacts with the environment, and whose phenotype has evolved to preserve the replicator that it carries.”

3. E3 Beyond DNA: integrating inclusive inheritance into an extended theory of evolution - Nature Reviews Genetics Nature Reviews Genetics · 17 June 2011

   “Biological information is typically considered as being transmitted across generations by the DNA sequence alone, but accumulating evidence indicates that both genetic and non-genetic inheritance, and the interactions between them, have important effects on evolutionary outcomes.”

E1 shows the replicator/vehicle distinction set out in the evolutionary literature by 1982: vehicles such as bodies are mortal and not replicated, while replicators are copied in reproduction. E2 restates the same framework, with genes as the replicators transmitted across generations and vehicles carrying them. E3, from 2011, notes accumulating evidence that non-genetic inheritance affects evolutionary outcomes, a recognised qualification that does not amount to bodies being passed down the way genes are. The core claim therefore matched standard biology as of 2012, with a minor caveat the claim leaves out.