diff --git a/DESCRIPTION b/DESCRIPTION
index 8e49c1f..d38c779 100644
--- a/DESCRIPTION
+++ b/DESCRIPTION
@@ -22,9 +22,8 @@ URL: https://docs.ropensci.org/paleobioDB/,
 BugReports: https://github.com/ropensci/paleobioDB/issues
 Imports:
     curl,
-    gtools,
+    jsonlite,
     maps,
-    rjson,
     terra
 Suggests:
     roxygen2,
diff --git a/NEWS.md b/NEWS.md
index 556b243..d06ded1 100644
--- a/NEWS.md
+++ b/NEWS.md
@@ -1,3 +1,15 @@
+paleobioDB 1.0.0.9000
+=====================
+
+### DOCUMENTATION FIXES
+
+* In `pbdb_scales()`, at least one parameter needs to be specified
+  now, so the examples in the documentation were updated accordingly.
+
+### OTHER CHANGES
+
+* The `rjson` dependency was replaced by `jsonlite`.
+
 paleobioDB 1.0.0
 ================
 
diff --git a/R/network.R b/R/network.R
index 7e29673..b3c064c 100644
--- a/R/network.R
+++ b/R/network.R
@@ -76,7 +76,7 @@
 #' @returns data frame
 #' @noRd
 .parse_raw_data <- function(raw_data) {
-  data_list <- rjson::fromJSON(raw_data)
+  data_list <- jsonlite::fromJSON(raw_data)
 
   if ("warnings" %in% names(data_list)) {
     # Enumerate warnings that were returned by the PBDB API
@@ -93,31 +93,16 @@
     )
   }
 
-  df <- .make_data_frame(data_list$records)
-  df
-}
-
-
-#' .make_data_frame
-#'
-#' Makes a data frame from a list of lists
-#'
-#' @param reg_list data rows as a list of lists
-#' @returns data frame
-#' @noRd
-.make_data_frame <- function(reg_list) {
-  if (length(reg_list) == 0) {
+  if (length(data_list$records) == 0) {
     warning("The PBDB API returned no records for this query.", call. = FALSE)
     return(data.frame())
   }
 
-  dfr_rows <- lapply(reg_list, function(reg) {
-    as.data.frame(lapply(reg, .collapse_array_columns_map))
-  })
+  if (!is.data.frame(data_list$records)) {
+    stop("The records in the response were not coerced to a data.frame")
+  }
 
-  dfr <- do.call(gtools::smartbind, dfr_rows)
-  dfr <- .convert_data_frame_columns(dfr)
-  dfr
+  .convert_data_frame_columns(data_list$records)
 }
 
 #' .build_query_string
@@ -144,26 +129,6 @@
   qs
 }
 
-#' .collapse_array_columns_map
-#'
-#' Maps multivalue elements to semicolon separated strings
-#'
-#' @param element a vector representing some data field
-#' @returns a string with the elements of the provided vector separated
-#'   by semicolons if it has more than one element or the vector as it
-#'   was passed to the function if it has length one
-#' @noRd
-.collapse_array_columns_map <- function(element) {
-  if (length(element) > 1) {
-    mapped <- paste(element, collapse = ";")
-  } else {
-    mapped <- element
-  }
-
-  mapped
-}
-
-
 #' .convert_data_frame_columns
 #'
 #' Converts some columns (lng, lat) from character to numeric.  This
diff --git a/tests/testthat/fixtures/no_records_resp.rds b/tests/testthat/fixtures/no_records_resp.rds
new file mode 100644
index 0000000..993d061
Binary files /dev/null and b/tests/testthat/fixtures/no_records_resp.rds differ
diff --git a/tests/testthat/test-network.R b/tests/testthat/test-network.R
index 2c97abc..b0d3499 100644
--- a/tests/testthat/test-network.R
+++ b/tests/testthat/test-network.R
@@ -38,18 +38,19 @@ test_that(".parse_raw_data() replicates warnings from the API", {
   )
 })
 
-test_that(".make_data_frame() warns the user if no records are returned", {
+test_that(".parse_raw_data() warns the user if no records are returned", {
+  resp <- readRDS(test_path("fixtures", "no_records_resp.rds"))
+  raw_data <- .extract_response_body(resp)
   expect_warning(
-    .make_data_frame(list()),
+    .parse_raw_data(raw_data),
     regexp = "The PBDB API returned no records for this query."
   )
 })
 
-test_that(".make_data_frame() returns a data frame", {
+test_that(".parse_raw_data() returns a data frame", {
   resp <- readRDS(test_path("fixtures", "valid_id_resp.rds"))
   raw_data <- .extract_response_body(resp)
-  data_list <- rjson::fromJSON(raw_data)
-  df <- .make_data_frame(data_list$records)
+  df <- .parse_raw_data(raw_data)
   expect_s3_class(df, "data.frame")
   expect_identical(
     names(df),
@@ -57,9 +58,3 @@ test_that(".make_data_frame() returns a data frame", {
       "eag", "lag", "rid", "lng", "lat")
   )
 })
-
-test_that(".collapse_array_columns_map() returns a length one character", {
-  s <- .collapse_array_columns_map(1:3)
-  expect_length(s, 1)
-  expect_equal(s, "1;2;3")
-})