Is it Possible for Nonhuman Animals to Evolve into More Human Like Creatures?

This week I read H. G. Wells' The Island of Doctor Moreau and it got me wondering about where the evolution of animals is going. It also made me wonder if creating creatures like the ones in the book was even remotely possible (probably not). Evolution takes hundreds of thousands of years to complete, but I wonder where it will lead the nonhuman animals of the world.....if there are any left long enough for that to happen; after all we are currently experiencing the largest mass extinction event in history. It is also the first extinction event where the rapid climate change is not caused by geologic or extraterrestrial influence (extraterrestrial meaning meteors etc). After reading the book I couldn't help but wonder if people's ideas about assigning significant moral status to nonhuman animals would be changed if the animals looked more human like and/or communicated in the same languages. Under the protagonist's original assumptions, his views on the creatures of the island gave them moral status. However after learning the truth, his ideas of their moral status changed. Humans choose humans over nonhuman animals in scenarios where both need rescuing because humans relate to and feel more of a connection with each other over other animal species. In these scenarios, the loss of the nonhuman animal makes no difference to the rescuer than if the nonhuman animal was spared. My question then is, if the communication barrier is removed, does that make nonhuman animals more relatable? Could a deeper connection be made? Could the question of moral status for nonhuman animals get answered?