Al-Jathiyah 45:4
The verse places two fields side by side within a single boundary: the human's own creation and "mā yabuththu min dābba" — the living creatures spread across the earth.
وَفِى خَلْقِكُمْ وَمَا يَبُثُّ مِن دَآبَّةٍ ءَايَـٰتٌ لِّقَوْمٍ يُوقِنُونَ
And in your own creation, and in the creatures He scattered, are signs for people of firm faith
Al-Jathiyah 45:4 · Translation: talal-itani
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The verb "yabuththu" means "to spread out, to strew, to disperse" — the verse depicts the living world not as dots on a map but as broad dispersal. The closing clause enters a qualification: in this picture are signs, but for a people of certainty. Seeing happens not by eye but by yaqīn.
Observation
Modern biology names the diversity of life with two basic numbers: the species described to date are on the order of two million; the estimated total is far higher — the ocean floor, tropical forests, and the microbial domain remain largely uncharted. This diversity is not spread evenly over the earth: the equatorial regions, the deep ocean, and rainforests are zones of high density. The observable face of the verse's "yabuththu" is exactly this — the earth is a picture strewn with living beings. The verse offers no list; it summons the very broadness with which ecology and biogeography work, as a ground for contemplation.
Exegesis
Classical exegetes say that "mā yabuththu" covers both the living creatures now present and those that will spread in time to come: al-Rāzī reports that in Arabic the root "bathth" means "the strewing of something over a wide area" and that the verse alludes to the unbounded increase within creation. Al-Qurṭubī emphasizes the telling choice of addressee — "li-qawmin yūqinūn" (a people of certainty): every eye that looks at the multitude the verse points to sees it, but not every eye sees it as a sign.
Sources
Tafsīr: Fakhr al-Dīn al-Rāzī, Mafātīḥ al-Ghayb; al-Qurṭubī, al-Jāmiʿ li-Aḥkām al-Qur'ān. Science: biodiversity and biogeography — species counts in IUCN and taxonomic work, the equator–pole diversity gradient, the literature of microbial discovery.